Way To Be
by upsettingthemoon
Summary: The story of Lily, James, and Severus at Hogwarts. James and Severus are both refusing they're in love with her, and Lily seems oblivious. We all know how it turns out, but what led up that?
1. Chapter 1

_So this is the first chapter of my new story about Lily, her friendship with Severus, how James falls in love with her, and hopefully someday(depending on how long it takes me to get tot heir seventh year) how she falls in love with him too. Please review. While writing this you have no idea how difficult it was for me to write Severus instead of Snape. Snape's gonna be in the next chapter more, because I love Snape, and I will give him some other friends. Like I said, please review, and please enjoy. _

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Lily Evans looked up as the owls delivered mail and the last day of her first week at Hogwarts. She was sitting with her new friend Mary Macdonald at the Gryffindor House table. She had never gotten any mail. But considering she was muggle born, and her parents didn't actually own an owl, this wasn't unusual. She returned her gaze to the eggs in front of her, but Lily wasn't hungry anymore. She was still upset over how she had left things with Petunia. She spent the remainder of the train ride with Severus trying to convince herself that she had done nothing wrong and she was most definitely not a freak.

"Hey Evans," James Potter said, sliding into a seat across the table from her. Sirius Black sat down beside him, and they were joined by Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew. The four of them, especially James and Sirius, were already inseparable. Lily had never seen anybody make such good friends so fast.

"James," she responded stiffly. She hadn't gotten over him making fun of Severus on the train. She now pushed her plate away and pulled a book at random out of her bag. She only had to ignore them until Severus was also finished eating, and then she could leave. Since Severus had been placed in Slytherin, Lily had only seen him a couple times over the past week. Luckily though, Gryffindors had Potions with the Slytherins, and the two of them had already decided to sit together. Lily had barely started reading when Severus appeared behind her.

"Ready to go?" He asked. Lily nodded. She put her book away, bid goodbye to Mary, and walked with Severus out of the hall. It wasn't until they were in the dungeons that Lily realized they still had another twenty minutes until class started. She was eager to learn, but there was a reason she wasn't in Ravenclaw. When she voiced her concern to Severus, he just laughed.

"I was thinking we'd explore the dungeons."

"Are we allowed?"

"Of course. The only teacher who's ever down here is Slughorn. I'm in his house and after only two potions lessons he already favours you. He won't mind." Severus watched her green eyes as she digested this. At last she nodded.

"Alright. But if you make us late I'll..." She couldn't think of a threat, so she just wandered towards the nearest door. "I wonder whats in here?" She pushed on the door. "Darn, locked." Severus walked over. He nudged her lightly out of the way, pulled his wand out and aimed it at the handle.

"Alohomora." He said. Nothing happened. He put his wand away embarrassed. "I haven't really tried that yet... let's just... oh look. There's Mary going into the potions room. It's not to early now. Let's go!" Lily laughed inwardly at his pathetic attempt to cover his bad spell, but she followed him to the classroom anyways.

They sat in the seats they had claimed the first class. In the center of the first row. Mary was sitting on Lily's other side across the aisle. She leaned over to ask her a question. Severus sat watching. He had a feeling inside him he wasn't quite used to experiencing. He would feel the same feeling many times in the years to come. Pretty much anytime that anyone other than him talked to Lily. The angry he feeling he had when he felt that she should be talking to him instead. Also known as jealousy, although he didn't know this yet. He didn't think he should have any reason to be jealous of the people Lily talked to.

Lily turned back to Severus as the classroom began to fill up. James came in with Sirius and they took the seats directly behind Lily and Severus just like they had the first day. James sat down first, and Sirius rolled his eyes before joining him. They began a conversation about Quidditch, and how it was completely unfair that first years weren't allowed to play for house teams. And as much as Lily disliked James, she was very curious about Quidditch, so she reluctantly turned around to butt in on their conversation.

"What exactly is Quidditch?" She asked cautiously. She was afraid they would laugh at her for being so ignorant. On the contrary, James' eyes lit up and he immediately began to fill her in on every detail.

"It's a sport, played on broomsticks. There are four balls. A quaffle, two bludgers, and the golden snitch. There are seven players. Three chasers, who try to get the quaffle in the goalposts that the keeper guards. The beaters hit the bludgers with bats to try to knock players off their brooms and the seeker catches the golden snitch." Lily tried to imagine all of this in action. It was very difficult. James looked at Sirius, to get his attention, and then turned back to Lily before adding, "I'm going to play seeker. Just like my dad. It's the Potter gene. We're all natural seekers. Small and speedy. As perfect of seekers as you'll find anywhere." Lily sighed; James seemed to have the tendency to like to talk about himself. But luckily, Professor Slughorn chose that moment to enter the room, and all talking ceased immediately.

"Good morning students!" He smiled brightly at the class, and proceeded to call roll. "Alright," He said after all the names were called, "please open your books to page 17. I would like you to make the potion you see there. You have until the end of class. Begin." Lily and Severus eagerly opened their books and started gathering ingredients.

An hour later Slughorn stopped the class. There was a thick smoke issuing from a cauldron at the back of the room. Everyone was coughing. Slughorn started at the back of the room, grading each persons potion as he went.

"Sev," Lily whispered as he slowly made his way up to the front. "Does my potion seem a little dark to you? Yours is the perfect shade of red, but mine seems a little too..." she stopped talking as Slughorn approached their desk. Severus gave Lily and encouraging smile, and she turned to face the professor.

"Very good Lily. One of the best first attempts I've seen in a long time. I'd say you just waited to long to add the flobberworm parts, which gave it the slightly darker colour, but still, very good." Lily inflated. Her first week at school and she was being praised on her potions. A subject that she honestly thought that she wouldn't be very good at. He wrote something on his paper, then moved on to Severus. "Oh my. This is perfect. You have talent, my dear boy, there's no doubt about it. Five points to Slytherin." Lily deflated. She liked being the smartest, most talented. She wasn't pompous or anything, she was just used to being outshone by Petunia. She'd be better off sitting with Mary, who's potion had been called passable.

Lily and Severus parted ways in the Entrance Hall after class. He was off to Herbology while she had Transfiguration with the Hufflepuffs. She hurried to join Mary, who was already at the top of the staircase, when James intercepted. He was alone this time. Sirius must've been with Remus and Peter.

He had just opened his mouth, when Lily cut him off. "I'm sorry James, but I have to go ask Mary about the proper wand movement of that spell we learned yesterday," and she ran up the stairs, leaving James looking defeated.

"I think he likes you," Mary said to Lily once she caught up.

"Who?" Lily asked bewildered.

"James Potter. You should've seen his face when you started talking to him about Quidditch in Potions."

"That was a look of surprise purely because he was amazed I could be interested in a sport. You've got to admit it is pretty farfetched."

"You playing Quidditch? No, I could see you as a chaser in a couple years. Your very determined." Lily, who was pretty certain she had just been complimented, smiled at her. They had now reached the Transfiguration room. They took seats in the center of the room.

* * *

"Why are you always talking to Evans?" Sirius asked James as they took their seats in the back corner of the classroom.

"What are you talking about? I don't talk to her any more than I talk to anybody else." He thought about this for a second. "Except for you and Remus and Lupin."

"But you make more of an effort to talk to her." A look of terrible comprehension crossed Sirius' face. "You don't... like her, do you?" James laughed.

"Sirius, please. I am 11 years old. I have better things to do than like girls." He laughed again, and Sirius joined in.

"Phew. I was worried for a second there. Theres no point in liking girls until we can take them somewhere. Like Hogsmeade. In our third year. Like where would we take them now? The library?" Sirius snorted, earning a disapproving look from Professor McGonagall, who had apparently began the lesson which both James and Sirius had failed to notice.

James was thinking about what Sirius had said. He had a good point. But even so, James couldn't stop the images that kept coming into his head of him and Lily in the library. These images soon turned into short videos, her cheering him on in Quidditch matches, them holding hands in the corridor, them sitting in a nice tea shop, or possibly pub, in Hogsmeade, heads together laughing. He shook his head furiously, trying to get the images out of his head. She was Lily Evans, a girl. Simply a girl, nothing else. Not to mention she was friends with Severus, or Snivellus, Snape. James didn't like Snape. His greasy long greasy black hair disgusted him. He would prefer Lily choose to be friends with someone with nice clean short black hair, like himself. He shook his head again.

"I don't want to be friends with Evans," He muttered under his breath.

"What?" Sirius asked quietly.

"Oh nothing. I was just talking to myself."James shook his head one last time, then turned to face Professor McGonagall and tried to keep his thoughts away from Lily Evans.


	2. Chapter 2

_So heres chapter 2. Please Review! _

_Disclaimer: I own my own ideas, other than that the people and stuff belong to JK Rowling_

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The next few months passed by smoothly for Lily. Her friendships with Severus and Mary were strong than ever, while she was spending increasing amount of times avoiding James Potter. He was getting more arrogant every day, and Lily could not stand it. He had the tendency to pop up unannounced and try to start a conversation. Luckily though, Lily had made friends with most of the Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, and Ravenclaw first years, so there was almost always someone around for her to excuse herself to talk too.

After Halloween, the school began to buzz. The first Quidditch game of the year, Gryffindor versus Ravenclaw, was just around the corner. Having heard so much about a game she'd never seen, Lily was especially excited.

Severus did not share this excitement. He was a fine flier, this became obvious after the first couple of flying lessons, but he didn't seem to enjoy it. James Potter, on the other hand, was an amazing flier, and was a show off about it.

"I hate it," Severus said to Lily during their last flying lesson. They were both hovering mid-air, away from the other students who had semi-organized a game of Quidditch, just with no hoops or balls. "James Potter acts like he's better than anyone else."

"At flying?" Lily asked.

"Yes at flying. And at everything else too. He thinks just because he's a pure blood and his parents are rich that he has the right to be an obnoxious... screwt!"

Lily snorted. "An obnoxious screwt? Sev, that's lame." She was silenced by a look from him, and was silent for a minute. "I know what you mean though. He jinxed Donald Poppers in the hall the other day, just out of the blue. His reason? He needed someone to practice the jelly legs jinx on. That poor Hufflepuff, they get teased enough as it is. And him and Sirius joke around and lose so many house points, but nobody cares. Everyone just lets it go. It's such a pain." Lily continued with her rant, but Severus had stopped listening. He was watching her red hair as it flung around her shoulders. Her green eyes were bright with annoyance. And since she usually talked with her hands, but she wouldn't take them off the broom while in the air, he watched as they twitched.

"Come back to the ground! It's almost lunch!" The flying instructor called from the ground. Lily stopped mid sentence, gave Severus and irritated smile, and she dived towards the ground. Severus followed close behind.

They parted ways at in the great hall soon after. Lily left to the Gryffindor table with Mary, while Severus went to sit with Avery and Mulciber, his two best friends in his house. Avery described the details of the fake Quidditch game, while Severus and Mulciber(who was afraid of heights), listened intently. Severus had wanted to join in the game, but Lily hadn't, and his limited time with Lily was more important than a silly game any day.

A few days later, Severus walked with Lily and Mary down to the Quidditch pitch. They were all very excited. Mary was a half-blood, and had grown up knowing about the game, but had never seen one played.

The two Gryffindors parted ways with Severus when they reached the pitch. They had to cheer on their own houses, and since the rivalry between Slytherin and Gryffindor was so bad, Severus would be cheering for Ravenclaw. Severus found Avery and Mulciber, and they found seats in one of the Slytherin stands.

"I bet Gryffindor wins. My dad told me they always win," Avery told them.

"No. Gryffindor can't always win. Because Slytherin beats them lots," Severus contradicted.

"I meant they always win to the other houses. My dad also told me that Hufflepuff hasn't won the Quidditch cup in over 50 years."

"Oh, that's depressing," Mulciber said. There was a moment of silence, then the three of them burst out laughing. "But seriously," he continued once they had settled down, "I don't think we have to worry about losing the Quidditch cup this year."

Severus took that moment to look around the stands. It looked like the whole school had turned up. The first years were obviously the most excited, while the older students in Slytherin and Hufflepuff looked like they were only there because everyone else was. Severus also noticed Lily. She was talking animatedly with Mary and a couple other Gryffindors. The red in the scarf tied around her neck clashed with her red hair, but in a good way.

The match started soon after, and every single person in the stands was intently watching the game. Except for Severus. Every couple of minutes he'd steal glance at Lily, who was more into the match then Severus would've thought possible.

After about an hour the game was over. The final score was 270-110, in favour of Gryffindor, who had caught the snitch.

Lily went back to the common room with Mary. She couldn't help noticing that James and Sirius seemed to walking close behind them, even when they purposely went the long way. When they arrived back at the common room, it was loud. There were more people in it than Lily had ever seen at one time. There was a table holding food that someone had obviously stolen from the kitchens when they had won, and the team was in the middle, being congratulated.

Lily stayed in the common room for a while, chatting with people about her opinion on the game, which she had loved. The noise finally got to her though, and she left to the library to get some homework done before it closed.

James watched her leave. He debated following her, but decided against as the portrait hole door swung shut behind her.

"That was quite a good game," Peter said. James and Sirius agreed. Remus wasn't there, as he had taken ill the previous afternoon and they had not seen him since.

"I can't wait until I'm on the team next year," James said.

"How do you know you're going to make the team?" Sirius asked him, slightly suspicious.

"Because this years seeker is leaving, and I'm great. You've seen me fly. And I've said before, it's in my blood. It'll be an insult to my ancestors if I'm not chosen."

Sirius just rolled his eyes. Peter, on the other hand, was awed.

"Lucky you," he said, "I'm rubbish at flying, I'd never make the team."

"You could commentate, that's important too. And that way you can make sure everyone's always looking at me when I make my miraculous catches." James smiled brightly at Peter. Peter laughed nervously in response.

"Okay. I'll commentate then. In a couple of years. In the meantime, I have something else to keep me busy."

"What could you be doing that will take a couple years?" Sirius asked curiously.

"I have a secret. Can I trust you?" He waited until James and Sirius had both nodded in agreeance before he continued. "I am in love with Lily Evans." Sirius and James exchanged a look, before they both started laughing. Peter sat there patiently until they had finished. "I do not see what is so funny about that."

"Well," Sirius started, "Your so you. Your just Peter. Theres nothing wrong with that," he said hurriedly at the infuriated look that had appeared on Peters face, "It's just that I can see someone like Lily better suited with someone like James."

"You think?" James asked? His face lit up slightly. Peter didn't notice, and Sirius was tactful enough not to say anything.

"Sure. Why not? And anyway Peter," Sirius redirected his face towards Peter, "what use is it being in love at our age? I can think of better ways to spend my time. Like find every secret passage in this school."

Peter looked shocked. "Hogwarts has secret passageways?" Sirius and James laughed at his ignorance, but other than that they made no acknowledgment that he had spoken. They instead launched into explanation of the secret passages they had been told about, and where they led to. Peter pondered on what they had said. Maybe being in love with Lily Evans was pointless. He wasn't anything special. He wasn't nearly as smart as his three best friends, and he was only 11 years old. He had time for all that in the future. And with that, Peter gave up his love and turned to join his friends conversation.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Later that night, Severus lay awake in his room. He was thinking the exact opposite of what Peter had been thinking mere hours earlier. Being in love with Lily Evans was not pointless. Not that he was in love with her or anything. He spent most of the daytime denying, most of the nights thinking about Lily, and every second away from her yearning to see her. Lily Evans. Lily Snape. It sounded awful, but oh well. Maybe she could hyphenate it. Lily Evans-Snape. That sounded better. Severus rolled over in bed. He had lost track of how many hours he had lain awake thinking about her. He was eleven years old. In the muggle world he would still be thinking that girls were gross. They wouldn't even be friends in the muggle world. Severus decided that he was very lucky indeed he was not a muggle. He considered this a huge victory, and fell asleep soon after.

The months past. Lily lived her life perfectly normally. She spent time with her friends, went to classes, did homework, and watched Quidditch. She didn't have any secret loves, she was just a bright, sweet, eleven year old. James and Severus did the same, although they both spent hours weekly inwardly refusing to believe they were in love with Lily. And that his how the two of the spent the next two years. Happy, but inwardly denying the love for the girl who they both knew would never love either of them back.

"Sev!" Lily cried out. Severus turned to see his best friends waving at him from beside her parents. She had been vacationing all summer and he hadn't seen her since term had ended two months previous. As he approached her, she ran forward and threw her arms around him. They were at platform 9 ¾, ready to board the train to their third year at Hogwarts. Severus hugged Lily back. He had missed her over the summer. They broke apart.

"How are you?" He asked, giving her a quick once over. Both she and her hair had grown. She looked great.

"I'm great. How are you? I missed you!" Lily smiled brightly, and Severus couldn't help but smile back.

"I'm good. I missed you too," Lily laughed, then shrieked. Mary came hurtling into view, and they hugged. Severus tuned out. He didn't mind Mary, but she had the tendency to be annoying when she was excited. They talked fast, and Severus used the time to look out at the platform. His mom had left as soon as they had arrived, giving him a quick hug and telling him she'd write. He didn't know if he should believe her.

"Sev, are you sitting with us on the train?" Lily asked, and Severus immediately turned back to their conversation.

"Um, actually I'm sitting with... you know, my fellow Slytherins." Lily didn't seem at all fazed by this.

"Of course. We'll catch up tomorrow." Lily glanced at her watch. "We should probably board if we want a compartment. It's almost eleven. Just let me say goodbye." Lily walked back over to her parents and hugged them both tightly. Petunia hadn't come to see Lily off since her first year. Lily didn't mind, they weren't on great terms. When Lily returned to Mary, Severus had disappeared. They boarded the train, and found a compartment with a few friends of theirs. They settled into the seats, and were already deep in conversation when the train left.

"This is the year James," Sirius said, leaning back in his seat. Sirius and James, along with Remus and Peter, had the compartment to themselves.

"The year for what?" James asked curiously. He was already on the Quidditch team, and he didn't have any other goals that could possibly be achieved at age thirteen.

"The year you can finally admit that you are in love with Lily Evans." Remus and Peter looked up at this.

"What?" Peter asked incredulously. "When did this happen?"

"First year," Sirius replied with a smirk.

"I am not in love with Evans," James said defensively. "And I never have been." He thought he had hidden it so well.

"Whatever. I know you are. And if you'll remember a certain conversation we had in our first year, this is the year we start dating." James searched his memory. The conversation sounded vaguely familiar.

"So? Just because we're dating doesn't mean I have to date Evans. I don't even talk to her." This was a lie. He had written to her over the summer. She hadn't responded. It was a bit of a bruise on his ego.

"Whatever. You'll cave eventually and ask her out, I know it." Sirius smiled at James. He got a glare in return, and James turned to Remus.

"So hows the wolf doing?" James asked.

"Shut up. Someone will hear you," Remus responded glancing into the corridor.

"No they won't. And if they do, they won't understand. And speaking of your furry little problem, we need to get on that..." James' voice trailed off, and he shared a mysterious glance with Sirius and Peter, who both nodded.

"Get on what?" Remus asked cautiously.

"Evans," Sirius responded laughing, earning him a punch from James. Remus sighed, pulled a book out of his bag, and was soon lost in it.

"Library tomorrow at lunch," Sirius mouthed to James, and James nodded. "So, what do you think Gryffindor's chances at the Quidditch cup are this year?" he asked aloud.

"With me on the team again, pretty darn good," James answered boastfully. The talk turned to Quidditch until the food trolley arrived. As usual, James bought all the food, and everyone ate it. Soon after Peter had devoured the last chocolate frog, Severus walked past the compartment. James put his finger to his lips, grab his wand, and silently opened the compartment door. He pointed his wand after Snape, and whispered "petrificus totalus," Severus froze up and fell over. The nearby compartments all opened their doors and shared a laugh, and after a couple minutes, somebody took pity on Severus and performed the counter curse.

"Oops, sorry Snivellus." James called after Severus as he disappeared out of sight.

"You're never going to get Evans if you keep treating her best friend like that," Remus said wisely without looking up from his book.

"I do not want to get Evans," James growled. "And anyway, its not like I was hurting him. Just having a bit of fun really."

Sirius leaned over to Lupin. "That's just what he wants us to think. He actually wants Snivellus out of the way, because Snivellus is obviously in love with Evans too. Except Evans doesn't hate him like she hates James." Lupin sighed and shook his head, trying to hide the small smile that had appeared on his face. Peter had his head in his hands and was shaking. Sirius leaned back into his seat with a look of satisfaction on his face.

"Sirius Black. If I have to tell you one more time that I do not love Lily it will be you who is getting jinxed in the corriders," James and Sirius stared each other down, and then they both burst out laughing. "Okay, fine. I will be incredibly annoyed though."

Peter chose this moment to pull out some cards, and they spent the remainder of the trip playing exploding snap. Exploding snap was one of the few things James sucked at, so he had a lot of time to think.

He thought about what Sirius had said. He didn't _love_ Lily Evans. He just appreciated her wand work. And liked spending time with her, although she had made it very clear over the last two years she was not interested in spending time with him.

"Oh well," James thought. "James Potter gets what James Potter wants."


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter

Lily walked with Mary into the Great Hall. They picked seats at the Gryffindor table, and immersed themselves in conversation while they awaited sorting and the start of term feast. Lily was too busy looking across the hall to find Severus to notice when James dropped into the seat beside her, closely followed by Sirius, a few minutes later.

"Evans! How was your summer?" James asked, Lily glanced at him and sighed.

"It was fine," She turned back to Mary. James look irritated, he could not be shook off this easily.

"Everything all right, Evans?"

"Everything is just fine, Potter. I just heard what you did to Severus on the train, and quite honestly, I don't understand why I should waste my time talking to someone who so obviously needs to stop randomly jinxing people and grow up." Her voice went harsh at the last two words, and she turned away from him again. James didn't test her patience.

"I know plenty of grown up people who jinx people for fun," He whispered defensively to Sirius.

Sirius snorted. "Oh yeah? who?"

"Us in three years?" James said, completely serious. They stared at each other for a few seconds, then they both started to shake with laughter. "Whatever. I am thirteen years old, I should not be getting told to grow up. I have the rest of my life to grow up." Sirius nodded in agreement. "But what I don't understand," James continued whispering after a minute of sitting in silence, "Is why she hated me before I started jinxing her best friend. Like I can sort of understand now, but before. I hadn't done anything that could've bothered her."

"I'm sure you did plenty," Sirius smiled innocently as James picked up a fork from the table and mimed stabbed Sirius with it. "And anyway, despite the fact that she obviously can't stand you, you still love her, and will still ask her out. Because being rejected by her is better than being ignored by her."

"Sirius Black, what did I tell you earlier about me and Evans?" James muttered through gritted teeth.

"That I'm not supposed to keep telling you that your in love with her, because your not."

"Right."

"But you are, so I'm going to keep telling you until you listen."

"I hate you," James muttered stubbornly, turning away from Sirius.

"No you don't, you..." But Sirius was cut off as the doors opened and Professor McGonagall led in the new first years. James and Sirius sat abnormally quite through both sorting and the feast. James was sitting in quiet defeat, Sirius in distinctive pride. They left the Great Hall with Remus and Peter, talking, just not to each other.

Lily stood outside the doors to the Great Hall as they passed. James smiled at her, but she didn't acknowledge it. She was waiting for Severus. He came out with Avery, and wouldn't have noticed Lily if she hadn't reached out and grabbed his arm.

"Hey Lily,"

"Sev. I feel like we haven't talked in months."

"That's because we haven't talked in months," Lily rolled her eyes.

"Yeah I know. Do you want to each lunch together tomorrow? In the library?" Severus' face lit up at the offer.

"Yeah, of course,"

"Perfect, see you then," She smiled at him. Severus watched as she walked away from him. Her red bouncing off her back. His best friend. That's all. Friends. He stood in the same spot for a few minutes, as the remainder of the school drained from the Great Hall. Mary MacDonald was one of the last out.

"Oh Severus, have you seen Lily?" He pointed in her in the direction Lily had walked off in. Mary assuming she had gone to the common room, hurried up multiple floors and through many secret passage ways until she arrived at the portrait of the Fat Lady.

"Password?"

"Arachnid," Mary said, shivering at the word, she hated spiders. The portrait swung open and Mary hurried inside. She ran straight to her dormitory, and was glad to find Lily sitting on her bed, unpacking robes.

"Lily! I've been looking everywhere for you!"

"Why?" Lily asked curiously, she rarely saw Mary this excited.

"Because I just heard from Alex who heard from Jim who heard from Alice who heard from Jane who heard from Kenny who heard from Jen who overheard them talking that James Potter is going to ask you out!"

Lily groaned. "Why? Like, I could guess he would probably do it eventually, but still. How many ways can I make him see I can't stand him!"

Mary shook her head sympathetically. "I knew you'd say that. But he is the second best looking guy in our year, and one of the most popular boys in the whole school although he's only in third year."

"But I don't care about that stuff, and," Lily paused, "Wait. You said second best looking guy, who do you think the first is?"

Mary giggled. "Well, Sirius."

"Sirius Black? As in James Potters best friend?"

"Yeah. Did you _see_ him today? The summer holidays did him good. Plus, he has the whole 'I'm a total rebel because I'm in Gryffindor and the rest of my family was all Slytherin and they hate me for it' thing going for him."

Lily stared in disbelief at her friend. "Okay, but if you ever want me to double with James, think again."

"Deal. Now I must be getting to bed. Our dormitory mates will be up soon, and I don't feel like listening to them talk about my future beau."

Lily didn't know what to say to this, so she changed into pajamas and got into bed without another word.

It was past midnight. Everyone was asleep. Except for James and Sirius. They always sat up late the night before classes start after summer, Christmas, and Easter holidays. It was one of those traditions that was never spoken of but always followed. They always sat in their favourite chairs by the fire in the common room, doing nothing of consequence, doing nothing but staying up so they'd be as tired as possible the next day.

"James. Have you heard the latest rumor?" Sirius asked as they stared into the fire.

James yawned. "Nope. How far around the school is it?"

"Pretty much everyone in our year has heard. Quite a few fourth years, the odd second year."

"What is it?"

"Your asking Evans out,"

"No I am _not_! What's the rumor?"

"James," Sirius turned away from the fire to face his best friend. "That _is _the rumor." James stared back.

"No! Now the whole school will know." He put his head in his hands and groaned.

"What? You were planning on asking Evans out?" Sirius asked shocked.

"No," James moaned, "This whole school will know I like her."

"You've been denying for two years that you like her, why admit it now?"

"Because if the whole schools going to talk about I figured at least one person should know it could be true."

"And you picked me as that person, thanks mate," Sirius smiled, and James aimed a punch in his direction.

"Just, don't mention it to anybody, okay?"

"Yeah, because I would do that," Sirius' voice was crawling with sarcasm, but James got irritated anyway.

"Whatever, I'm going to bed." He started up the stairs. "Oh, and remember, library tomorrow at lunch so we can start researching animagus."

"Why are you reminding me tonight? I'll see you tomorrow."

"Not without Remus. Because while I'm in Arithmancy tomorrow morning, you'll be in," James cleared his throat, "Muggle Studies."

"Oh I am so looking forward to slacking off in that class." Sirius called up the staircase after James, who just laughed.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

The morning of the first day of Severus' third year at Hogwarts was hell.

Well, the lessons weren't that bad. He started Ancient Runes, and although he spent the whole class thinking of his lunch plans with Lily, he still managed to find it very interesting. But other than that, Severus had an awful morning. He heard people talking. Talking about James Potter. James Potter and Lily Evans.

It wasn't even the concept of James asking Lily out that people found so interesting. It was that it was common knowledge that Lily and Severus were good friends. And it was also common knowledge that James and Severus hated each other. It was the creation of an awkward love-type triangle in the making that made even seventh years paying close attention to what was going on.

And that was what made Severus' morning so awful. Not only hearing the gossip about his best friend, the girl he was still denying he was in love with, and the pitying looks he got from everyone who knew that Lily could very possibly chose James over him, and Severus would lose her forever.

So Severus spent the morning in Ancient Runes with Mulciber, mocking the Hufflepuffs for being Hufflepuffs, and mocking the Ravenclaws for being overeager learners. When the bell rang at the end of the lesson, Severus bolted out of the classroom. He ran down the corridor towards the library. Lily had been in Arithmancy, which was much closer. Severus wanted as much time with Lily as he could. He stopped running when he turned into the corridor that held the library door. He entered calmly, and Lily waved him over to their table. The one they always sat as they studied for exams together. He joined her, and she was soon describing her vacation to him. She had been to Italy, and apparently loved it. She was mid description of their hotel, when the library door opened again. James, Sirius, and Peter entered. James stopped dead in his tracks when he saw Lily and Severus. He nudged Sirius, and nodded in their direction. Sirius laughed, and pushed James out of the way. James followed Sirius and Peter over to a row of books, which they began pulling off the shelves.

"What are they doing in the library at lunch?" Severus snarled.

"Why do you care? _I _don't," lily responded, glaring in their general direction.

"There's a rumor going around about you two," Severus told her. She rolled her eyes.

"I know. I hope he doesn't. I know he's a jerk, but I'd feel bad saying no."

"So you'd say yes?" Severus asked, incredulous. He took a deep breath, hoping that wasn't what she meant.

Lily laughed. "I'd say no, I'd just feel bad about it." Severus sighed in relief.

"Good," Lily raised her eyebrow at him. "I just meant he is a jerk, and I'd rather see you with someone better." Lily smiled brightly.

"Thanks Sev. Have I ever told you I'm glad we're friends?"

"I think you just did." They both laughed at this. "But I'm glad we're friends too."

"Speaking of friends, how are you friends with Mulciber? He is creepy. He scares me,"

"Well how are you friends with Mary. Have you _heard_ her talk when she gets excited?"

"Well at least she is a good person, and nice, and smart, and ..." Lily stopped talking. James Potter was walking towards her. Severus turned to see what had distracted her, and he glared as James walked up.

"Hey Snivellus," he said brightly, patting Severus' head. He pulled his hand away quickly. "Snivellus, they've invented this thing called Shampoo, I recommend it." Severus glared at him.

"What do you want?"

"Nothing that has to do with you," He looked at Lily. "Can I talk to you for a minute Evans?" Lily looked into his eyes. He gave away no emotion, although his eyes were a nice shade of brown.

"Yeah, sure," She stood up, and followed James into the empty corridor.

"Okay, so Evans... Lily. I'm sure you've heard the rumor by now, the one about me asking you..." He couldn't seem to finish his sentence. Lily nodded. She bit her lip, nervously awaiting what came next. "I just wanted to let you know, the rumor is not true." Lily unbit her lip. A look of deep surprise crossed her face.

"Oh, okay... Good to know."

"You thought I was going to ask you out just now, didn't you." Lily blushed, then nodded. "Did you think I followed you to the library too?" He asked, laughing.

"I wondered. What other reason could James Potter possibly have for being in the library at lunch?" Lily teased. James just smiled.

"It's a surprise. Although, one that you'll probably never find out about."

"Well now I'm curious. Half the schools talking about me because of you, I think I have the right to know."

"No way. It's a very secretive surprise. But you never know, maybe you will find out someday." James said mysteriously, then went back into the library.

_He's really not that bad_, Lily thought as she watched him walk away, _But still, I'm glad he didn't ask me out. _

She returned to Severus in the library, where he was watching James, Sirius and Peter with a look of great disgust.

"So he asked you?" He asked Lily bluntly as she sat down.

"Nope. The rumor was fake."

"That's all he had to tell you?" Severus asked in disbelief. Lily nodded, and glanced over at James. He noticed, and smiled at her, she smiled back.

"Why didn't you just ask her out?" Sirius asked, pulling books from the shelves.

"Because I didn't want to. And she doesn't like me, I would've been rejected."

"She just smiled at you," Peter pointed out.

"So? I smile all the time. Smiling means next to nothing."

"But..."

"Peter, drop it. James will ask her out when he's ready." Sirius interrupted, and James smiled gratefully at him.

"Hold on, Peter, how did you even know I liked her? I told you yesterday I didn't."

"Oh, I left a book in the common room, and I couldn't sleep so I went to get it and I heard you guys talking."

"We really need to learn to talk quieter," Sirius laughed.

"Yeah. Like now. When the person we're talking about is on the other side of the room." James nodded in Lily's direction.

"Oops," Sirius muttered, and Peter laughed.

"Shhh. Let's just get these books and go. We should have enough information from them. And if not we can come back." The three of them crammed books in their bags and left the library.

"I wonder what they were doing," Severus said, as he watched Sirius, James, and Peter leave the library.

"Let's find out. James said it was a secretive surprise." Lily lept up from her chair and went over to where they had been pulling books. They had left a couple out, and Lily brought those back to Severus. She returned to the table and dropped them in front of Severus.

"Animagi?" He whispered. "Why would they want to research that, unless they were considering becoming animagi?" He looked up at Lily, she shrugged.

"They could probably pull it off. James and Sirius are the best at transfiguration in our year, but Peter? And if they are, why isn't Lupin here with them?"

"I don't know, I'm finding out though."

"Oh Sev, don't get mixed up with them. You will have enough trouble on your plate being friends with Avery and Mulciber without screwing around with Potter and them too."

"Screwing around? If either of us ever in any way screw around with James Potter, it'll be you." Lily glared at Severus.

"Not funny Sev. You are my best friend but if you don't take that back, I'll... I'll... I'll get James Potter to jinx you in the corridor!" Lily cried out.

"Yeah right," Severus muttered, but he took it back anyway.

"And anyway. I don't even turn 14 until January. I'm not going to be screwing around for at least another year." Severus stared at Lily in shock, but then she winked and he understood that she had been kidding. He didn't like the idea of her with James though. James was arrogant, liked to jinx people for fun, liked being on the Quidditch team way too much, and James just didn't deserve her. Severus thought he deserved her, but nobody could ever know that. She was a muggle born. A Gryffindor. And a redhead. None of which generally sat well with Severus and his Slytherin friends.

Severus and his other friends generally looked down on muggle borns. Lily was the one exception. She was the only muggle born who Severus did not refer to as mudblood. She was actually the only muggle born he talked to at all. This did seem to bother her. She often told him his friends were evil, which Severus could've agreed with if it didn't mean admitting he was evil too, because when he wasn't with Lily, he was exactly like them.

"Oh crap," Lily said, breaking through Severus' thoughts. He looked up at her. "I left my transfiguration book in the dormitories, I better go now or I'll be late for class." Lily stood up. She put her bookbag over her should, kissed Severus on the cheek, then walked to the door. "Sev, lunch again tomorrow?" She asked him, pausing in the doorway. He nodded, and she smiled brightly before disappearing into the hall.


	6. Chapter 6

**So sorry for the long delay for this chapter it's been like 2 months, and I apologize. I still have slight writers block, but i have an idea for this story, unfortunately, my idea doesnt go into action until the end of their 6th year, so it might still be slow going for a bit.**

**Please review!**

Chapter 6

James grabbed his broomstick, a Nimbus 1000, and held it to his side. He adjusted the sleeve of his Quidditch Robes, and waited for the rest of the team to be ready. They marched onto the field, James standing in front with the Gryffindor captain, Richard Abernathy. The whistle blew, and James flew straight up into the air. This was the first game of the year, and it was against Slytherin. He needed more than ever to win. If he won this game, he'd have a good excuse to ask Lily to Hogsmeade with him the following weekend. Well he'd have an excuse if she said no, him being "caught up in the excitement," as he'd explained to Sirius the previous evening as they sat in front of the fire. And if she said yes, well he wouldn't need an excuse.

James circled the field, keeping one eye out for the snitch and the other for the Slytherin seeker, Lucius Malfoy, a seventh year. It was a beautiful day, unnaturally warm for late October, but James hadn't even caught a glimpse of the snitch since it had been released. The game was going on around him, and Slytherin was winning 130-110, when James finally saw the snitch. It wasn't too far away, but it was closer to Lucius, who fortunately hadn't seen it yet. James casually flew in the direction, keeping his eyes on the snitch, but not going to fast, because Lucius could easily get there first. When James was the same distance from the snitch as Lucius, he sped forward. Lucius didn't notice until a moment too late, and then James had the snitch clasped in his fist, shaking it excitedly over his head. He flew to the ground, where he was congratulated by the team. The stands were roaring, Only the Slytherin house hadn't been cheering for Gryffindor. This, right here, the feeling after winning a match, was the reason James played Quidditch.

"I can't believe Gryffindor won… again." Severus growled, walking with Lily back up to the castle after the game.

"Of course we did. You didn't really expect us to lose to Slytherin did you?" Lily mock scoffed, and then laughed at the look of disgust on Severus' face. "Oh lighten up, I was kidding."

"Well then congratulations on being part of the winning team."

"You don't mean that. You'll say that, but go back to your common room and be very upset over the loss." Severus glared at her. They had reached the castle. They entered the Great Hall, and stopped at the bottom of the stairs.

"I should probably let you go, I expect you'll have a celebratory party to go to."

"I expect I will. See you tomorrow, Sev. Library at 10?" Severus nodded, and Lily turned to walk up the stairs. He watched her go, and she had just turned the corner when James and Sirius, followed by Remus and Peter entered the castle. They were walking towards the stairs, so Snape turned away, when they started talking.

"Well look who it is Sirius." Sirius' eyes narrowed in on Severus, and he smirked.

"Why James, it's our good friend Snivellus." Severus sighed. He knew what was coming. He couldn't run fast enough, and even if he managed to get his wand out in time, it was still four against one.

"I've been looking for someone to practice this on," James mock whispered to Sirius, and then raised his wand at Severus' back. "Tarantallegra."

Severus' feet flailed under him, his arms flew around as he tried to balance on his dancing feet.

"See you later Snivellus," Sirius called as he walked up the stairs.

They arrived back in the common room ten minutes later. Everyone applauded when James walked in. He bowed and blew kisses for his crowd, and then headed for the food table, which someone had already gotten from the Kitchen.

"I can't believe he blew kisses." Mary muttered to Lily, and they both giggled. They were seated against the wall, each with a small plate of food, watching the room around them.

"I want another pastry. Cover me, I'm going into the James Potter arrogance zone. I may never get out alive."

"Well it was nice knowing you," Mary said, saluting Lily. Lily rolled her eyes. She walked over to the table where James was still picking out food. She considered just going back t Mary empty-handed, but she really wanted that pastry.

"Evans! Did you see my catch?" James asked as Lily arrived at the table.

"Yeah. Good job." She grabbed her pastry, and turned to go, but James grabbed her arm.

"What?" She snapped at him, jerking her arm out of his grip.

"Calm down, I wanted to ask you something." Lily didn't say anything, she just raised her eyebrows, and James took this as a sign to continue. "I was wondering if you wanted to go to Hogsmeade with me next weekend." He smiled at her.

Lily's sharp intake of breath was barely audible, but her answer seemed to magnify around the common room. "No!" She almost yelled.. James' face fell.

"Why not?"

"You mean other than the fact your arrogant, you jinx my friend on a weekly basis, and you started this conversation by talking about yourself?" James just stared at her. "Yeah, that's what I thought." She turned, and pushed her way through the crowd back to Mary.

"What did he do?" Mary asked as Lily landed beside her, annoyance still clearly etched on her face.

"He asked me out. And I think he expected me to say yes." Lily groaned.

"You will someday." Mary told her wisely.

"Say yes? Like he'd ever ask me again. I practically yelled at him. And I wouldn't want to say yes anyway."

"We'll see." Mary said simply, and Lily didn't bother to respond. Mary had started Divination this year, and had started talking mysteriously, or confusingly. She made no sense.

Sirius plopped onto the couch by the fire beside James later that night. Most of the Gryffindor's had gone to bed, there were only a few, trying to squeeze some homework in before bed, left in the common room. "So she said no?"

"How did you know?" James responded glumly, staring into the fire.

"I'm pretty sure the whole common room heard her yell 'no', I'm just one of the lucky few who knew why."

"She called me arrogant." James said.

"Well you are."

"I know, but no ones ever actually straight out told me before."

"You're insane."

"Whatever." James huffed. "I'm going to bed."

"James," James stopped at the bottom of the stairs to the dormitory, and turn to look at his best friend. "She'll come around."

"I doubt it." James said, and walked up the stairs.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

A week later, James trudged the snowy Hogsmeade lane behind his three best friends. They kept exchanging worried looks, in the three years they had known him, they'd never seen him like this. He'd been in a funk all week. Ever since Lily had rejected him. He went to classes and meals, but he did his homework in the dormitory, and didn't talk nearly as much as he used to. He hadn't even jinxed anyone in a week.

"You guys go in, I'm going to knock some sense into him," Sirius told Remus and Peter when they arrived at the Three Brooksticks. "Get a table, we'll be in in a minute."

"We're not going in?" James asked.

"Nope. Your coming with me." Sirius walked towards the nearest alley, and James followed. Once they were there, Sirius shoved James into the wall. Hard.

"Ouch. What was that for?" James groaned, rubbing his shoulder that had the hardest impact on the wall.

"You need to snap out of this. She rejected you, big deal. It's not like she freaking died. You're my best mate, but your being insane." Sirius turned and walked back to the Three Broomsticks.

"Where is he?" Peter asked when Sirius sat down.

"I don't know. I left."

"What happened?" Remus asked.

"He pushed me into a wall, yelled at me, and then stormed off." James announced, appearing behind Sirius.

"I did not _yell_," Sirius responded, in a mock-offended tone.

"Well you should have. Have you guys ordered yet?"

"Yep, four butterbeers." Peter told him, licking his lips. James grimaced.

"Good."

Their drinks arrived a couple minutes later, and Sirius proposed a drinking contest, which he won.

"See, that's why no one should partake in contests related to food with me," Sirius burped. The others laughed. "Ohh. Look who it is." Sirius had just entered the bar. Followed by Lily and Mary.

"Don't do anything." James warned him. Sirius snickered, and then seeing the deadly look on James' face, looked down.

"I can't believe you, you never miss a chance to jinx Snivellus."

"Yeah, well…" James let his voice trail off, he was watching Lily get seated in the corner booth.

"I think you bruised James Potters ego," Mary informed Lily as they slid into their seats. "He's barely said anything these past couples days, and he hasn't jinxed anyone in a week."

"And your blaming that on me?" Lily asked.

"Well you rejected him."

"Well he deserved it." Severus inputted. "Do you have any idea how long it took for someone who knew the counter-curse to that blasted spell to come through the hall."

Lily gave him a sympathetic look, and he smiled back. Severus looked down at his watch.

"Oh, I've got to go, I'm meeting Mulciber." He got up and strode out of the bar.

"You know, he kind of reminds me of a bat," Mary told Lily, "Just the way his robes bellow out around him."

"Shut up," Lily smirked at her.

"Speaking of Severus, does he always have to hang with us?" Mary asked, avoiding eye contact with Lily.

"He doesn't always hang with us. And I didn't know you minded when he did."

"He's a Slytherin." Mary said, as if that explained everything.

"But he's not like the other Slytherins. He's my friend. He's the first connection to this world I had."

"He called a Hufflepuff second year a Mudblood the other day. Without a second thought."

Lily gasped. "I don't believe you."

"It's the truth. It won't be long before he starts calling you one too."

Lily stood up. "Shut up Mary. You don't know what your talking about. You have no right to tell me these things."

"You're right, its his right to tell you, but he's not. So I figured some one should."

"Whatever, I'm out of here."

She ran, tears gathering in her eyes, brushing past James and his friends in her rush to the door.

"What's that all about?" Sirius muttered.

"I'm going to go find out," James muttered back, and hurried after her.

He found her sitting on a rock just off a secluded path that led to the Shrieking Shack.

"Evans?" He asked cautiously.

"Go away Potter." She sniffed in.

"What's the matter?" he took a step closer to her.

"Go away!" She pulled out her wand. "Take one step closer to me and I'll hex you. I've learned a couple good ones."

"Fine." James threw his hands to the sky, and yelled it again for good measure. Then headed back to where he had left his friends.

Lily snorted into her scarf. "Drama queen."

"What happened?" Sirius asked when James got back.

"Where are Remus and Peter?"

"They went to stock up at Zonko's."

"Let's go meet them."

"Why aren't you answering my question?"

"Women are insane, did you know that? It's impossible to be nice to one. Im-freakin-possible." James groaned.

"I know mate."

"Can we go get something at Zonko's that will cause great pain to Snivellus?"

"Of course." They wandered back up the snowy street to the joke shop, where they found there friends examining a display of Dung Bombs.

"How'd it go?" Peter asked.

"I think I might have to stay single forever."

"Why?"

"Oh Peter," Sirius sighed, "Someday you'll learn not to ask so many questions."

"I can't wait for that day," Remus muttered. James and Sirius laughed, and Peter looked crestfallen.

"Are we almost done here? I say we hit Honeydukes, and then head back. There's something I need to check out of the library." James said, exchanging a meaningful look with Sirius. They needed new books, the ones they had weren't specific enough about the actual animagus process, mainly just background information.

"You? The library? What's going on that I don't know about?" Remus joked.

"Yeah I know, never thought that would happen." James laughed good naturally. They went to Honeydukes, then walked back to the castle. "Although," James began, continuing earlier conversation, "It shouldn't be that surprising, I am one of the smartest in my year. I wouldn't be surprised if I get made prefect."

"You'll never get made prefect, you get in way too much trouble." Remus told him. "Speaking of which, you guys have detention tonight for defacing that statue in the third floor corridor."

"Oh yeah, thanks for reminding us." Sirius said sarcastically. "I think I'm going to accompany James here to the library to make sure he's not actually planning on studying or something crazy like that." They started up the stairs.

"I sure hope we can become animagi soon," Sirius said an hour later, as they poured over books in the library. "I don't want to have to go through all this." He was reading a book about the gruesome affects of animagi gone wrong.

"Don't worry," James assured him. "We're the brightest in our year, if anyone can, it'll be us."

"What about Peter?"

"We'll help him."

"And if we can't?"

James looked up from a chapter on how the animal is decided. "Well then I have a feeling he'll miss out on a lot of interesting nights."


	8. Chapter 8

**A couple notes. First, I would like to give a shout out to _AnnaAza_, because you review like every chapter and I love you for it.**

**Second. PLEASE REVIEW! I love getting them, but I get like none, so it's kind of weird.**

**Third. This chapter is little short because I'm running out of ideas. I love James, and I hate having Lily hate him, so I might jsut skip to their fifth year soon, just so i can write something more interesting. **

Chapter 8

A week later, Lily still wasn't talking to Mary.

Mary had tried to talk to her a couple times, but Lily just brushed her off. She felt bad about it, their argument had caused their dormitory to go completely off balance. After hearing about what happened, their dorm mates Kathleen and Elizabeth sided with Lily, but Margaret sided with Mary. Lily was fine with that, she didn't particularly like Margaret, and she occasionally caught herself wondering how the girl wasn't in Slytherin.

Lily walked down for breakfast that day with Elizabeth, they situated themselves at the Gryffindor table opposite Kathleen, who was eating scrambled eggs and reading The Daily Prophet.

"Try the eggs," Kathleen suggested as they sat down, not looking up from her paper, "They're fantastic today."

"I guess that means Peeves has been staying away from the kitchens." Elizabeth said brightly, grabbing a piece of toast from a nearby plate. "The food's never quite as good when the house elves are agitated."

"Well can you blame them?" Lily asked, pouring herself a glass of pumpkin juice. She had just started eating her breakfast when Kathleen pointed towards the Slytherin table.

"Severus is waving like a maniac in our direction trying to get your attention Lily," She told her, her voice cool. She and Elizabeth didn't like Severus either.

"Look away, quickly," Lily said, her voice dropping an octave. Lily had been avoiding Severus all week. She wasn't ready to know if what Mary had said was true, and she knew that the moment she started talking to him again, she'd have to ask him.

"Lily, you have got to stop avoiding everyone." Elizabeth told her.

"I am _not _avoiding anyone!"

"Oh yeah? You're avoiding Severus. And Mary. And I'm pretty sure your also avoiding James Potter. I understand the first two, but why are you avoiding James?"

Lily hadn't told the two of them about how she had yelled at James. "I was rude to him the last time we talked." She said simply. And then she turned around to make sure he couldn't have heard her. He wasn't anywhere in sight, but she did notice Severus leaving with Avery and Mulicber.

Elizabeth leaned across the table to Kathleen. "And that's Lily for: I feel bad for rejecting him, because I'm a good person, but he's so arrogant it's not enough that I'll apologize." Kathleen nodded in agreement.

Lily groaned. "Whatever, I'm out of here." She grabbed her bag, and stormed out of the Great Hall. Kathleen and Elizabeth watched her leave.

"He's going to get over it someday." Kathleen muttered vaguely.

"Who's going to get over what?"

"James Potter is going to get over his arrogance."

"And then Lily will go running into his arms."

"They'll get married."

"There wedding will be outdoors, but not on the beach. Lily doesn't like getting sand in her shoes."

"And then they'll have kids."

"At least two or three."

"Those children will be spoiled rotten."

"By their parents?"

"Yeah, and their Godfather."

"Sirius, I suppose."

"Yes."

"But not by their muggle aunt, they'll never see her."

"But they will see their muggle grandparents."

"Who can teach them about muggle stuff."

"Like telefission."

Kathleen shot a look at Elizabeth. "It's tele_vision_. Not fission. You really should be taking Muggle Studies."

"But why would I want to do that?"

Lily hurried down the corridor, she was almost late for Charms, and Professor Flitwick wouldn't be very pleased if she was late. She was about to turn the last corner to the classroom, when she heard voices. It was Avery talking, and assuming Severus was with him, she ducked behind a coat of armour. Just in time too, for Avery, Severus, and Mulciber turned the corner a minute later.

"Did you hear what Doyles did?" He was saying.

"That mudblood Hufflepuff in fourth year?" Severus scoffed. And Lily stopped listening. Mary had been right. She couldn't believe it. She waited until they had turned another corner, then ran down the hall to her Charms class. She arrived in the door, fighting back tears, just as the bell went. She scanned the class, and saw there was only one available seat yet, and it was beside Mary.

She walked to the seat and sat down, Mary didn't even glance at her. It was Lily who broke the silence ten minutes later, while writing down notes on whatever it was Flitwick was talking about.

"You were right." She muttered, not taking her eyes off of the front of the class.

"What do you mean?"

"He calls people mudbloods."

"I know."

"I can't believe it."

Mary glanced at Lily and gave her a small smile, "I know."

"You didn't have to be such a jerk about it though." Lily huffed.

"You needed to know."

"He's still my friend though, he was my first friend from this world, I can't just _stop_ being friends with him."

"I guessed as much. Just please don't make me hang out with him anymore."

"I won't, I promise."

"Good." Mary smiled in satisfaction.

And just like that, they were friends again.


	9. Chapter 9

**Yeah, so I decided to skip their fourth year. I wasn't really sure what would happen, and in the fifth year I can have the marauders adventures, which is better than nothing. **

**Again, pretty pretty please review. I love reviews. If you dont review, I wont know anyone actually cares enough to read it, and I'll stop writing.  
**

Chapter 9

The next year and a half passed with ease. James Potter began to ask Lily out at every opportunity. She always said no. It was now widely known he liked her. He still hexed people in the halls, mainly Slytherins, occasionally Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws. But never Gryffindors. Severus and Lily were still friends, although Lily got increasingly mad at him for his blood-status prejudice. He was still her best friend, but she knew it was a matter of time before he chose Voldemort over her. She grew even closer to Elizabeth and Kathleen, who still thought she'd end up with James, and she didn't dislike Margaret as much as she used to. And best, in the last month of their fourth year, James, Sirius, and Peter became very close to being able to change into their Animagus forms. They assumed they would be able to accomplish it by the end of September. And Remus still didn't know they were trying.

James and Sirius strolled onto Platform 9¾ on the first day of their fifth year at Hogwarts. They got waved at by friends, smiled at by girls who wanted them, and glared at by all the girls Sirius had dated the year before. He was quite a heartbreaker.

"This is the year," James announced as they settled into a compartment at the back of the train.

"The year for what?" Sirius asked, watching the platform move beside the train.

"The year for animagi, the year for us to pass our OWLs, the year for Snivellus to finally snap and Evans stop being friends with him, and most importantly,,,"

"They year for Lily to finally go out with you?" Peter asked, hauling his trunk into the compartment.

"Exactly," James smiled in satisfaction. "Wheres Remus?"

"He's a prefect, remember. He'll be up at the front." Sirius responded.

"I quite honestly don't understand how he got prefect over us Sirius. I mean, we're the brightest in out year."

"Maybe they couldn't decide which of us to pick, so they just chose third best."

"Makes sense."

Peter laughed nervously.

"It's actually a good thing Remus isn't here yet, we need to talk." James looked at his friends seriously, and they nodded.

"What if I can't do it?" Peter asked glumly, looking down at his feet.

"Of course you'll be able to. And if you can't, well James and I will be there to help." Sirius shook out his hair, and yawned. "I wish the food trolley would hurry up."

"We've been on the train like," James checked his watch. "Twenty minutes. How can you possibly be hungry?"

"I had early breakfast, then ditched."

"What did you do?" Peter asked, an air of awe in his voice.

"Went to various muggle coffee shops on hit on the waitresses." Peter's eyes lit up, but James just shook his head.

"Pathetic, mate." He told him.

"Well at least _I _haven't been asking out the same girl for two years, even though I know she'll never say yes." Sirius retorted.

"Yes she will."

"And _I'm_ the pathetic one?"

"It's called optimism, you should try it." James ran his hands through his hair, messing it up even more than it already was. "And anyway, weren't we going to talk about our solution to Remus' furry little problem."

"You've got to stop calling it that, people are starting to think he's got a rbid bunny back home." Peter laughed.

"Would you rather I called it lycanthropy?" Peter stopped laughing.

"Well I think that'd be a little more obvious." He muttered.

"Anyway. After you guys left this summer, I was practising..." James started but was interrupted by Sirius.

"Underage magic? James Potter, I am very disappointed in you."

"And I'm going to be able to change properly soon, I can feel it."

"Do you know what your going to turn into yet?" Peter asked.

"You're never supposed to really know what you change into until you actually change. But I know I'll be something big. Maybe a stag, like my patronus."

"That would make sense, one of the books said that animagi forms are often the same as your patronus."

"Well if all of ours are the same, that would mean a stag, dog, rat, and werewolf will be walking around Hogwarts once a month." James smiled at the thought.

"Well it could be worse. We could turn into dragon. That wouldn't be very conspicuous at all." Sirius said, somehow managing to incorporate both seriousness and sarcasm into his comment.

The three of them burst out laughing. They stopped when the compartment door clicked, ready to slide open, and Sirius watched it hopefully, but it was just Remus.

"Oh," he slumped into his seat. "It's just you."

"Thanks for being so excited." Remus responded sarcastically, lifting his drunk into the overhead racks.

"Don't be offended. Sirius was hoping for food." James explained.

"Well you'll have to wait a little longer, the food trolley's only halfway down the train." Remus told him.

"Why do always have to sit at the back of the train?" Sirius moaned.

"Patience is a virtue." Remus said wisely. They all looked at him.

"What?" James finally asked, incredulous.

"Never mind." Remus mumbled, grateful for the arrival of the lunch trolley that took the attention away from him a few minutes later.

James bought some of everything from the trolley. Half an hour later, just after they had finished eating and all four boys were rubbing their very full stomachs, the compartment door opened. James sat up immediately, it was Lily.

"Hey Evans, how was your summer?" He asked, but she ignored him.

"Remus, would you mind patrolling the corridors for a bit? I haven't had a chance to eat lunch yet."

"We still have plenty of food, you can eat here." James offered, but Lily just looked pointedly at Remus until he stood up.

"I'll be back in a bit," He told them, then walked into the corridor with Lily, shutting the door behind him.

"Sorry about James…" He started, but Lily just shook her head.

"It's okay, I'm used to it."

"He's convinced you'll come around one day."

Lily laughed. "I seriously doubt it." She waved goodbye to Remus, and then headed down the corridor to the compartment where her friends were. She actually liked Remus. He was smart, sensible, and nice. His main fault was his two best friends. The biggest trouble makers in the school and he didn't even bother trying to control them. Lily opened the compartment door and found Mary, Elizabeth, Kathleen, and Margaret on the other side.

"Please tell me you have some food left, I'm starving." Lily settled into the seat between Mary and the window, and Mary handed her a pumpkin pasty.

"We were just talking about our summers," Kathleen informed her. "How was yours?"

"Same as usual. Petunia barely talked to me."

"What did you do?" Margaret asked.

"Nothing, my parents couldn't get any time off work."

"So you spent all summer alone?" Margaret asked sceptically.

"No. I spent a week at Mary's in July, and Severus lives right by me." She stopped talking when she saw the looks on their faces. "What?"

"We can't believe you're still friends with him, that's all." Kathleen explained.

"Yeah, we thought you finally would've dumped him like the dark arts loving, greasy haired jerk he is." Elizabeth said.

"Guys, I've told you before. He's my friend. And he's not going anywhere yet."

"Yet. She said yet. She knows the inevitable," Margaret said, and Lily glared at her.

"Shut up." Mary opened her mouth to speak, but lily shot her a look, and she shut it. You didn't want to get on Lily's bad side. Not only was she amazing at charms and potions, but she was in the Slug Club along with Severus, and all she had to do was mention something to Slughorn and they could be shunned for life. He had the power to put their futures on hold.

"So what _did_ you guys do with your summers?" Lily asked sweetly, taking a huge bite out of her pasty. She wasn't really listening as Elizabeth rambled on about her time in France. She went every summer, and did the same things every summer.

She was instead thinking about what Remus had said, about James thinking she'd come around. Lily had been shocked to here that. James had so far become increasingly arrogant each day. She spent a fair amount of time avoiding him, especially when Hogsmeade weekends were approaching. She didn't think she could have made it any clearer she wasn't, and never would be, interested. But apparently James had hearing problems. Or ego problems. Probably both.

Lily dozed off in her seat, still inwardly ranting about James Potter. Mary woke her up just before the train pulled into to Hogsmeade station, and Lily hurriedly pulled on her robes. She glanced around the compartment as she left, smiling at her new owl, Rue, that her parents had bought her for becoming a prefect.

Once off the train, she followed Mary into one of the horse-less carriages. They were joined by Remus and Sirius. Lily smiled at Remus, and nodded at Sirius. She really didn't have anything against Sirius either. He was still arrogant, but not nearly as much as James.

Remus seemed tense though, Lily noticed. She glanced out the carriage window towards the moon, and saw it would be full in a few days time. She had her suspicions that Remus was a werewolf. Nothing was confirmed, but between him disappearing every month at the full moon, and James talking about his 'furry little problem', it seemed like a pretty good guess.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

September passed slowly for Severus that year. The amount of homework had almost doubled from the previous June, and he and Lily were both so busy with it that the only time they ever saw each other was in Potions. They still sat together, just like they had every Potions class since their first year. But it was different now. Lily's friends sat across the aisle from her, Severus' across the aisle from him, and they didn't talk like they used to.

By the end of the month Severus decided they needed to renew their friendship, or maybe even move it past friendship. He had long stopped denying to himself he was in love with her. He had even allowed himself to hope she was secretly in love with him too. Every time she smiled at him, or laughed at something he said, his heart would swell inside his chest. But Severus couldn't afford to be hopeful. Not when James Potter had his eye on Lily too.

Severus watched James too. He saw the expression that would cross his face whenever Lily entered a room. It was similar to the way Severus imagined he looked. And that made him hate James Potter even more. And that was saying something, because he hated James more than anything.

James still hexed him on a regular basis. James hexed lots of people on a regular basis, actually. And he hexed a lot of people on an irregular basis too. And other than Severus, James didn't have a reason to hex them, because he genuinely like most people at Hogwarts, he just did it because he could. He hated the way Sirius would just roll his eyes, Remus would look away, and Peter would giggle whenever he jinxed someone.

So at the end of one Potions class, Severus decided to do something about it.

It was the end of September, and the first Hogsmeade trip of the year was coming up in a week. Severus decided to ask Lily. He didn't care whether she thought it was as friends or a date, as long as they were spending time together.

"Lily?" He asked as they put away their ingredients.

"Hmm?" She responded absentmindedly, rummaging through her bag.

"Do you want to go to Hogsmeade together next weekend?"

"I can't, I promised I'd go with Mary and Margaret. Next time, okay?" The bell sounded, and Lily hopped up. "See you tomorrow." She flashed him a smile, and then hurried out of the dungeons.

Lily hurried up the stairs, wanting to get as far away from Severus as possible. She loved him, she truly did, but as a friend, nothing more. And something from his tone of voice had made her wonder if he felt differently. Lily arrived at her Charms class five minutes later. She was the first one there. She pulled out her book to read while she waited. It was a muggle book, she always read muggle books on her holidays, and it was from this particular book that she had gotten the name of her owl.

The rest of the class slowly began to file in about five minutes later. Mary was one of the last ones in, and she slid into her seat beside Lily just as Flitwick entered the room. Lily noticed James and Sirius walk in behind him, Sirius looked slightly smug.

"Lily," Mary muttered after Flitwick had begun his lecture. "I can't come to Hogsmeade with you and Margaret next weekend."

"Why not?"

"Well, um, actually. Sirius asked me to go with him." Mary smiled brightly. Lily smiled back, happy for her friend who had had a crush on Sirius for at least a year. And then her face fell.

"Be careful, won't you. You know his reputation, he's asked out half the girls in our year. He's kind of a player."

"He hasn't asked out _half_ the girls in our year," Mary protested. Lily just rolled her eyes. She was happy fro her friend, she really was. But she didn't want to see her get hurt.

"I can't believe you finally asked her out," James told Sirius, not bothering to speak quietly. They had begun to practice the charms, and the class was too busy to notice their conversation.

"Yeah well," Sirius just smiled. "You could ask Evans out again, we could double next weekend."

"Yeah I already thought of that. I was just waiting for the right moment." James studied Lily from across the room. "I think now is the right moment, if you'll excuse me." James stood up and walked across the room.

"Hey," James said, resting his had on Lily's table, beside her arm. She immediately jerked away.

"What do you want, Potter?" Lily said, not looking at him.

"Well, next weekend is a Hogsmeade weekend. And I was wondering if you'd like to double with Sirius and Mary."

"No thanks," Lily said, waving her wand.

"Why not?"

"Do we really have to go over this every time you ask me out?" Lily cried out, exasperated.

"We wouldn't if you'd say yes," James grinned.

"But I'm not ever going to say yes. So you may as well give up."

"But…"

"Potter, go away." Said Lily, finally looking at James. He shot a hopeless look at Mary, who just shrugged, before he sighed.

"Fine," He took his hand off her desk. "But you will say yes one day, I know you will. Want to know how I know?"

"Not particularly."

"Because we were made for each other. And you can't fight destiny. So it's really a waste of your time using all this energy rejecting me, because you'll give in eventually."

"So how'd it go?" Sirius asked James when he sat down beside him a moment later. James gave him a look.

"How do you _think_ it went?"

"Bad luck mate."

"Tell me about it."

"Did you give her the "we are made for each other and you _will_ come around" speech?"

"But of course."

"Maybe you need to try a different approach."

"Nope," James shook his head. "All I need is for Evans to admit she likes me as much as I like her."

"James don't kid yourself." James raised his eyebrows at Sirius. "I know you. If you just liked her, you would've stopped asking her out ages ago. You, my friend, are head over heels in love."

"So what if I am?"

The bell rang, signalling the end of class.

"I'm having a good feeling, can we spend lunch in the dormitory," Sirius asked, shoving his book in his bag. James nodded.

Half an hour later, they were seated on the floor of their dormitory, both had their eyes shut in concentration. James tuned out the world around him, concentrating hard on what he wanted, which was to turn into an animal.

It was the bark that broke his concentration. His eyes flew open, and a big, shaggy, black dog sat where Sirius had been moments before. He was wagging his tail with his tongue hanging out of his mouth, panting.

"Wow," James muttered. "That is so weird." Sirius kept wagging his tail. "Now change back." The dog popped back into Sirius.

"That was so cool." Sirius exclaimed. "Your turn."

James shut his eyes again. After a couple minutes, he felt an odd sensation, when he opened his eyes, he had four legs and horns. Just as he had suspected, he was a stag. He walked slowly around the room, getting the feel of being on four legs. Sirius turned back into a dog, and ran in circles around James. Sirius turned into such a big dog that they were practically the same size. After the original novelty of being able to turn into an animal had worn off, James turned back into a human. Sirius did too.

"Peter has got to see this."

**So this is at the bottom today because I wanted to say I couldn't really find any information on the whole animagi thing, except you don;t need a wand to do it, your clothes disappear and reappear when you change, and once you do it once you can much do it without much thought.**

**And as always, please REVIEW.**

**I think theres a button below.**

**like down there  
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	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

Severus walked down the Hogsmeade street with Avery the next weekend. It was a beautiful day in early October, the sun shining bright, and most Hogwarts students were on the streets, only going inside when necessary. As the afternoon went on though, it began to get cloudy. The clouds eventually covered the sun, and it began to rain, at which point Severus and Avery decided to go into the Three Broomsticks. They settled into a booth along the wall, and ordered their drinks.

"So then I pointed my wand at her, muttered those few words, and she collapsed." Said Avery, telling Severus a story about some girl he had cursed. Severus wasn't really listening. He had purposely picked the side of the booth that faced the door, and was keeping an eye on it. As Avery laughed, unaware Severus wasn't listening, Lily and Margaret walked in, both of them had wet hair from the rain. Severus caught Lily's eye, and beckoned her over. She gave a very pointed look at Avery, then looked back at Severus and shook her head.

"Slug Club," She mouthed, before going to the other side of the bar with Margaret. Severus smiled. He and Lily were both in Professor Slughorn's "Slug Club", and he had arranged a dinner that night.

Severus watched Lily as she picked a table near Mary and Sirius, giving her an encouraging smile over his shoulder as they sat down.

"Thanks," Mary smiled at the barmaid as she placed two butterbeers in front of her and Sirius. Sirius just smiled at the barmaid, and Mary had to keep herself from noticeably swooning. He really was gorgeous. The dark hair, the grey eyes, and the manner he kept, almost arrogant, but much less so than James. Sirius lifted his mug, motioning it towards Mary.

"Cheers," he said, and she clinked her own mug against his. She took a mouthful, allowing it to calm her down. She had been with Sirius for almost four hours, yet she was still amazed he had asked _her_ out. There was nothing particularly special about her. Though her friends did seem fairly envious of her thick, dark curls, and even Mary had to admit her large blue eyes were kinda pretty, she couldn't help but second guess herself.

"So," Sirius said after a minute of silence. "We've been together four hours and I don't even know where you're from."

"London." Mary responded shortly. "We live in a muggle neighbourhood. My mom was a muggleborn, and she grew up in London, and as much as she loves being a witch there were apparently some things she missed." Mary gave a half smile a took another sip of her drink. "What about you?"

"I'm from London too. Muggle neighbourhood too, although the muggles can't see our house."

"The beauty of magic."

"Yes indeed," Sirius grinned.

"You have a brother, don't you?"

"Yeah," Sirius grimaced. "He's a Slytherin."

Mary smiled sympathetically. "Oh. What were your parents?"

"Slytherin. The whole family's been in Slytherin. I'm the first one to break the chain for ages."

"Well good for you."

"What about your family?"

"My mom was a Ravenclaw, my dad a Gryffindor."

"Any siblings?"

"Nope, its just me."

"Nice life."

"I guess. It's awful at family reunions though. My parents are both the youngest of four, so I've got loads of Aunts and Uncles and cousins, and I'm the youngest so they just dote over me. It's kind of ridiculous."

"I hate family reunions. I'm the only non-Slytherin there. And it doesn't help that the only relative I actually like married a muggleborn and got disowned. My aunt Andromeda. I haven't seen her in years."

"Disowned for marrying a muggleborn?" asked Mary, incredulous.

Sirius shrugged. "That's how it is in the Black family. I'm well on my way to being disowned myself."

"Why?"

"Well, for starters, I'm a Gryffindor. And there's also the fact I hate them all and am considering leaving soon."

"Where would you go?" Mary asked, leaning forward a little on the table.

James watched his best friend with a twinge of envy. He was jealous. He was jealous that Sirius hadn't been rejected by the girl he liked repeatedly, and he was jealous the girl actually liked Sirius back. James glanced around the room and spotted Lily sitting with Margaret a couple tables away. He considered going over there to ask her if she'd like to go to Honeydukes with him, but decided against it. Even he could only take so much rejection.

"So Remus, full moon tomorrow night," said James in an effort to distract himself.

"I know," said Remus indifferently, tracing the rim of his mug with his index finger.

"We have a surprise for you," James and Peter both grinned. After showing Peter themselves in their animal forms, James and Sirius had helped Peter all week until he finally managed to turn into a rat. With the full moon the next night, they wanted to spend it with Lupin as animals, but they wanted to show him their abilities first.

"Are the surprise and the full moon related?"

"You could say that," James stretched out, ruffling his hands through his hair and looking over at Lily as he did.

"Is the surprise one of those things that I'd rather not know about but curiosity's going to get the better of me and I'll find out anyway?"

"No, this is definitely something you'll want to know about." Remus looked at Peter for conformation,then sighed.

"So when do I get to find out what this surprise is?" Remus yawned.

"Well don't act so excited." James rolled his eyes. While doing so, he caught sight of Sirius leaving money on the table, and standing up, Mary following his lead. He noticed James watching, and smiled at him. He looked over at Lily, then back to James with his eyebrows raised. James just shook his head.

Lily watched Mary leave with Sirius. Severus and Avery had left earlier, and although she was with Margaret, Lily couldn't help but feel strangely alone. She liked Margaret more than she used to. She still had her Slyhterin qualities, but they weren't as noticeable anymore. She chugged the last little but of her butterbeer, and then set the mug on the table.

"Wanna get out of here?" Lily asked, and Margaret nodded.

"Slug Club dinner?" asked Margaret as they walked through Hogsmeade towards Hogwarts. Lily nodded.

"Yep, at seven."

They stopped in Honeydukes on their way back, but they had done the rest of their shopping before going to the Pub.

A couple hours later, Lily arrived, slightly out of breath, outside Slughorns office. She had fallen asleep back in the dormitory, and was now late. She smoothed out her dress, and then quietly opened the door. She did a quick onceover of the room. The usual round table, surrounded mainly by students fourth year and over, and, of course, Professor Slughorn, who seemed to be telling a story. Lily slid into the empty seat beside Severus.

"Thanks for joining us, Miss Evans, I was just telling everyone here about an old student of mine, Gibby Doyle, who's first attempt at the Deflating Draught was even better than both of yours," he told her, motioning to both her and Severus. Both of them were here because of their excellence in potions.

"Well I'm sorry I'm late," Lily told him, trying to look distraught over not hearing the full story.

"No bother," Slughorn said brightly. "You didn't miss much."

Slughorn continued talking about old students of his who had gone on to achieve much, until the first course arrived. Everyone was immediately consumed in the food, and Lily finally had a chance to talk to Severus.

"So how was your day?" Severus asked her between spoonfuls of soup.

"It was fine. Sorry I didn't come over to see you, but you know how I feel about Avery." Lily said, avoiding Severus' eyes.

"I know. I don't understand why, though."

"He practices dark magic. I know he aspires to be a deatheater once he leaves school. And he has a very unflattering haircut."

"Having bad hair is an awfully shallow reason not to like someone," Severus pointed out.

"Well the first two reasons were perfectly reasonable," Lily argued back. They bickered on and off throughout the meal until the dessert dishes were cleared, and Slughorn began to talk again.

It was nearly eleven by the time they finally left.

"I'm exhausted," Lily moaned as she walked with Severus down the corridor. "And I was going to try to get some homework done tonight."

"Why don't we do some together tomorrow? Like we used to?" Severus asked hopefully.

"Sure. Ten in the library, at our usual table."

"Sounds good," said Severus, stopping at the corridor that led to the Slytherin common room. Lily waved goodbye, and hurried up to her own common room.

She got to her dormitory ten minutes later only to find they were all still up, grilling Mary for details about her date.

"Lily!" Mary exclaimed when she walked in. "You have to save me. These maniacs think I should remember what the third word he said to me was."

"You don't remember what the third word he said was? I can't believe you Mary, we asked for a play-by-play, and that's not what you're giving us." Lily mock scolded. Mary laughed, and Lily collapsed on her bed. She lay there for a minute, Mary had stopped recounting her date, and they were all changing into their pyjamas. Lily forced herself to follow, but after she changed and was lying in bed, she couldn't fall asleep. She could tell the others were asleep by the way their breathing had slowed.

"Lily?" The voice came from Lily's right. Lily rolled over to see Mary watching her.

"Yeah?"

"He kissed me." Lily could see Mary's smile through the darkness.

"Good."

"I really want this to last."

"Which part?"

"All of it. Me liking him, him kissing me, the awkward attempts at hand holding, arguing over the bill, and the look he gives me every time he thinks I'm looking away and won't notice."

"I hope it lasts too." Lily told her honestly, she was happy Mary was this happy. Mary closed her eyes and was quiet for a couple minutes, Lily wondered if she had fallen asleep, but then she spoke.

"We talked about you."

"Hmm? What about me?" Lily asked curiously.

"James. Sirius thinks that he's legitimately in love with you."

"He told you that?"

"I got it out of him. I thought you could've guessed as much anyway."

"He's not in love with me. I'm a game to him. And even if he was, it wouldn't matter because I cannot stand that arrogant asshole." Lily huffed, rolling over again, away from Mary. Mary didn't push the subject, although she was starting to think James was right. She thought that if James could manage to lose the arrogance, Lily really would come around.


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

Remus joined his friends in the Great Hall for breakfast a couple mornings later, the first time he had ever been able to eat with them the morning after the full moon. Madam Pomfrey was at a loss to understand why this was. As far as she knew, nothing had happened differently than before. But Remus and his friends knew the reason. Remus hadn't been alone this full moon. After it was late enough they knew everyone would be in bed, James, Sirius, and Peter put on James' invisibility cloak and snuck out to the Whomping Willow. They turned into their animals, and Peter, as a rat, pressed the knot that froze the tree. They didn't do much that night, just hung around in the Shrieking Shack, but it still made a difference. The morning after, there was no new damage in the Shrieking Shack.

"I'm exhausted," Sirius moaned, piling scrambled eggs onto his plate.

"You shouldn't have stayed out with me that late," Remus muttered, not eating, but sipping his goblet of pumpkin juice. Sirius ignored him.

"I'm used to being tired. The only bad thing about all this is we can't actually tell anybody." Sirius said.

"It's not fair. We accomplished something nobody else our age has, and we can't brag about it." James said, not bothering to keep his voice down.

"Well you could, but that would involve telling people about my condition and then the ministry would probably sue you for being unregistered, and that just wouldn't be good."

James and Sirius exchanged a look.

"Oh Moony…" James sighed.

"Moony?" Remus asked curiously.

"Oh, yeah. I was thinking about that last night. The wolf you doesn't look like you so I named the wolf you Moony."

"Well the stag you doesn't look like you James, so what shall we call you?" Remus asked him.

"Prongs."

"Well what about me?" Sirius asked.

"I didn't get that far. It took me long enough to think of Moony and Prongs."

The three of them sat in silence for a minute, thinking. Peter had fallen asleep on his plate.

"Padfoot." Remus finally said.

"I like it. It's very fitting," Sirius smiled.

"Fitting because dogs have pads on the bottom of their feet?"

"Well yeah. But don't you just think it suits me?"

"It really does." James said. "What about him?" He asked, nodding towards Peter.

They sat for a couple more minutes in silence, thinking hard.

"I have no idea what to call him," Remus said, breaking the silence. "But we should probably get to class. The bell is going to ring soon."

"We'll think about it in class." Sirius said, pulling his book bag over his shoulder. "Somebody wake Peter, I'm going to go see if I can walk Mary to class." He spotted Mary, with Lily, about to leave the Great Hall, and hurried to catch up.

"Mary," He said as he caught up to them.

"Hi Sirius," she smiled at him.

"I was wondering if I could walk you to class?"

"Yeah, of course," Mary smiled at him again, and then turned to give a very meaningful look at Lily.

"I'm going to go see Remus about our prefect shifts," said Lily, in a very unsubtle way.

She thought about just taking a different route to class, but in the end decided not to give up an opportunity to question Remus about his illness. She had taken over his prefect duties the night before because he had been ill. So she waited on the stairs.

"Evans! Hey!" James called as he approached with Remus and Peter. Lily ignored him.

"Remus, how are you feeling?" She asked, falling into step beside him.

"Much better, thanks. A little shaky, still, but I'd take that over how I was feeling last night any day." James laughed when he said this, but Remus shot him a dark look, and James silenced immediately.

"You're not looking so good yourself, Peter. Are you feeling alright?" Lily asked him. He was trudging along in silence, and hadn't said anything yet.

"I'm f-f-fine," Peter said, stifling a yawn.

"Well you look rather pale. Perhaps theres something going around." Lily said, although she knew it wasn't true. She had suspicions about why Remus was sick so often. Suspicions that Severus shared, although he didn't know they did. She spent so much time arguing the case against him because she knew confirmation of that information could be very bad in Severus' hands.

They arrived at the classroom then, and Lily was surprised to see Mary wasn't there yet, seeing as she had had such a head start. She understood though, when Mary walked in a minute after the bell, closely followed by Sirius, with her hair slightly mussed, her mascara a little smudged, and looking incredibly emabarassed.

She sat down, not making eye contact with Lily. However, Lily forced Mary to face her, and wiped the mascara out from under her eyes, and used her hand to smooth her hair.

"Thanks," Mary muttered.

"Anytime," Lily whispered back. "But when I say that, I don't mean I agree with this pre-school snogging thing."

"Lily!" Mary gasped. But Lily just smiled.

A week later, Mary came into class late again. But this time, instead of looking embarrassed, she looked rather pleased, and almost seemed to be glowing.

"He asked me to be his girlfriend," Mary whisper-shrieked as soon as she took her seat beside Lily. "Like officially!"

"I told you he would," said Lily, who had indeed been trying to convince Mary all week that Sirius wanted more than to just snog her.

"I think you should know," Mary said to Lily as they left class. "That Sirius still thinks I should try to convince you to give James a chance."

"No way in hell," said Lily. "You two seem to spend an awful lot of time talking about James and me."

"That's because you've rejected James more in the past weeks than in all of the time after Christmas last year." Which was true, because James had taken to asking Lily to go for walks, or study with him in the library, almost daily.

"Maybe he's only dating you because James wants me convinced to go out with him."

Mary stopped walking to glare at her friend. "Not funny Lily."

"Sorry, I guess that was a little unnecessary."

"Maybe you should just say yes to him." Said Mary, after a few minutes of walking in silence.

"You have got to be kidding me."

"We can double, next Hogsmeade weekend. You know he'll ask you. Maybe if you say yes once, he'll stop asking."

"No, I'll just be letting him think he has a chance, which he doesn't." Lily huffed, and sped up, Mary following close behind her.

James and Sirius waited until they were around the corner before pulling the invisibility cloak off.

"James," Sirius said, in a very serious tone. "I know your in love with her and everything, but this is the first and last time I stalk anyone around the school."

**So I had intended for this chapter to be a little longer, but then the stalking idea just kind of opped into my head, and this seemed like a natural ending. By the way, sorry for the lateness on this chapter, I've had a bit of writes block yesterday. The only concrete ideas I have for this story won't take place until the end of their sixth year, so I might not be updating that often until I get there.**


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13

Christmas was in the air. It was barely December, but the usual trees had already been decorated and placed around the Great Hall. Mistletoe had been placed in the corridors and realistic looking fake icicles hung from stair rails. Severus was freezing as he got ready for school. With the Slytherin dormitories being in the dungeons, and under the lake, it was usually cold in there, even in the spring months. He was hurrying out of the common room, wanting to get upstairs into warmth, when he walked past the board in common. The bright green paper caught his eye. He stopped to read it, and saw it was a notice for a Hogsmeade day the coming weekend.

He smiled as he hurried up the stairs. He and Lily had been on great terms the past few weeks. Any weirdness that had been around lately was gone, so he was planning on asking her to go with him. He saw her seated at the Gryffindor table with Mary when he entered the hall. Severus debated going over there to ask her then, but he was hungry, and Avery was beckoning him over to the Slytherin table.

After about ten minutes, Severus noticed Lily and Mary get up from their table. He thought about following them, to ask Lily then, but then he remembered they had Potions together before lunch, so he'd see her then anyway.

He still watched, though, as she left the Great Hall. He watched as she was intercepted by a Ravenclaw fifth year whos name he had neglected to learn. He watched as Mary awkwardly smiled at Lily and walked past her out of the hall. He watched as Lily and the Ravenclaw talked. He watched as a blush crept onto Lily's cheeks, watched as she nodded, watched as the Ravenclaw talked again, and watched as they walked out of the hall together.

Later that morning, Lily walked into the Potions room. She was one of the first people there, so she sat down in her usual seat. Mary came in a minute later, saw Lily, and ran over. She plopped herself down in the seat beside Lily.

"That's where Sev sits," Lily told her.

"He can sit in my spot today. We need to talk."

"Whatever about?" Lily asked, widening her eyes, trying to look innocent.

"You know exactly what!" Mary narrowed her eyes at Lily.

"Fine," Lily rolled her eyes. "You really want to know?"

Mary nodded. Lily opened her mouth to talk.

"Evans!" A voice came from the classroom door. Lily groaned, and Mary sighed, knowing she wouldn't get any information soon.

"Hey," James Potter appeared in front of Lily. Instead of responding, she merely gave him an exasperated look, which he ignored. "So, I'm sure you know there is another Hogsmeade weekend coming up."

"Yes I did."

"Will you go with me?"

"Nope."

"Oh come on Evans." James sighed. "Why won't you go to Hogsmeade with me?"

"Because I don't like you."

"Other than that, why won't you go with me."

"Because I am already going with someone."

James froze. He stared at Lily, shock clearly etched on his face. "What?"

"You heard me." Lily told him. "I am going to Hogsmeade with _someone else_."

"Who?"

"That is none of your business."

"I've probably asked you out a hundred times over the last couple years. I think you owe it to me to tell me who your dating behind my back."

"Behind your back?" Lily scoffed.

"Yes. Now why won't you tell me who you're going with?"

"Because if I tell you, you'll jinx him in the corridors."

"I already jinx everyone in the corridors, so there is really no harm in telling me."

"Oh, so you'll admit that, but you don't understand why I won't date you?" James was about to rebuttal, but Lily cut him off. "James. Get over yourself. I am never going to date you. I am also going to date other people. So why don't you just go sit down, and leave me alone."

James stared at Lily for a moment, and then shrugged. Lily turned away, and watched him leave out of the corner of her eye.

"Harsh, Lily." Lily whipped her head around. She hadn't noticed Mary move over to make room for Sirius on her seat. Mary nudged him.

"Sirius," She muttered, sounding slightly threatening.

"What? We all know she hates the guy, but he's not listening."

"Well then why don't _you_ explain it to him?"

"Believe me, I've tried. You think I enjoy listening to him complain about how in love with you he is, and how he's convinced you'll come around."

"He's not in love with me."

"I'm pretty sure he is." Lily glared at him, so Sirius changed topics. "So who's the guy?"

"And what did he say? Word for word?" Mary asked.

"_Word for word_." Sirius mocked. "Did you two talk like that when I asked you out?" He asked, nudging into Mary. She giggled.

"Of course we did Sirius. We're girls, it's what we do." Sirius rolled his eyes.

"Mr. Black, please return to your seat." Professor Slughorn had finally entered the classroom.

"Yes, Professor," Sirius called up. He stood up, stretched out his arms, and then kissed Mary on the cheek before going to his seat beside James. The class "awwwwed."

"Young love," Slughorn sighed, watching them. Mary blushed, Sirius laughed.

"So, tell me absolutely everything." Mary said, adding some roots into her potion half an hour later.

"You were there for part of it."

"Only when Daniel walked up. What happened after?"

"He made small talk. Asked if I had any plans for the weekend. I told him I was planning on going into Hogsmeade. He asked if with anyone in particular. I told him no, probably just friends. So he asked if maybe I'd like to go with him. I'm pretty sure I blushed pretty bad, and I nodded and said yes. So he smiled, and then asked if I wanted to walk to Arithmancy together, and I said yes, so we walked to Arithmancy. That's it."

"Well what did you talk about on the way to Arithmancy?"

"Oh this and that. Classes. Quidditch. He plays keeper for Ravenclaw. I don't know what I'll do in the Ravenclaw vs. Gryffindor game in January."

"If your thinking that far ahead you must think this could last."

"Maybe."

"Do you want it to?"

Lily shrugged. "I really like him."

"And what's not to like? Cute, smart, talented."

"I know. I hope this weekend goes well."

"So do I."

Saturday morning Lily dressed carefully, with help from Mary. She wore the muggle clothes she usually wore on weekends, but she chose some of the nicer pieces. The soft, green sweater she had gotten for her fifteenth birthday. Jeans that were a couple shades darker than the ones she usually wore. And the shoes that her mom had bought her at the end of the summer holidays that had yet to be worn.

"You look great." Mary told her, as she strutted around the room.

"You think? Are you sure this sweater isn't too… green?"

"Lily. It's fine. Let's go, or we'll miss breakfast."

Lily reluctantly followed Mary out of the dormitory.

After breakfast, Lily met Daniel in the Entrance Hall.

"Lily," he greeted her.

"Hi Daniel," she smiled shyly at him.

"Shall we?" He gestured out the doors. Lily nodded.

They walked to Hogsmeade. The conversation flowed easily, ranging from the weather to the Hogsmeade stores.

"So where should we go?" Daniel asked when they reached the main street. "My friend suggested this coffee place, but you don't really strike as the kind of person who would want to go there."

Lily shook her head. "Yeah not really."

"Come on then." Daniel grabbed her hand, and pulled her up the street to The Three Broomsticks. It was already fairly crowded with Hogwarts students, but there was a table right by the window that was perfect. They ordered their drinks, and talked. Talked about everything. Lily learned that both of Daniel's parents were Half-Bloods, he had a younger sister, also in Ravenclaw, and that back home, he had a dog. A Chocolate Lab, named Kona.

Daniel learned about Lily's muggle-born status, her not-so-great relationship with her sister, and her reaction when she had found out she was a witch.

They had just finished their drinks when Mary and Sirius entered the bar. They walked around the bar, and having no luck finding a seat, walked over to where Lily and Daniel were sitting.

"Hey, there are no seats anywhere in this bar. We've checked. Mind if we join you?" Mary asked, not really expecting an answer. Sirius grabbed two chairs that the people at the next table weren't using, and placed them at the table.

"I'm sorry, I can make them leave if you want." Lily muttered to Daniel.

"No, it's fine. I'd love to spend time with your friends."

"Daniel I presume? I'm Sirius. I don't think we've ever been formally introduced."

"Wow Sirius, I think that's the smartest sounding sentence you've ever said." Mary teased, Sirius stuck his tongue out at her.

"Would you care for a refreshing beverage, darling?" Sirius asked.

"I'd love one."

Sirius stood up. "You guys want anything?"

"No thanks, we already drank." Lily explained.

"So, how's your date going?" Mary asked, as soon Sirius was out of earshot.

"It's going good. What about yours?"

"Same old, same old." An awkward silence followed.

"So, how long have you been with Sirius?" Daniel asked, breaking the silence.

"I dunno, a month, maybe." Mary said. Daniel nodded. Luckily, Sirius returned a minute later.

"What'd I miss?" He asked as he placed a butterbeer in front of Mary.

"Oh nothing. At all." Mary said, sipping her drink.

"Do you play Quidditch, Sirius?" Daniel asked him.

"Not really. I can play, but I never bothered trying out for the team."

"Why not?"

"Because him and James on the same team would be an unfair advantage," Mary smirked. And then her face fell. "Speaking of whom." Sirius followed her gaze to where she was looking.

"Oh shit." He muttered.

"What?" Lily asked.

"James going to kill me if he sees us sitting here with you two."

"Why?" Daniel asked.

"Because James is in love with Lily." Mary told him, earning a disapproving look from Lily. "Well it's true."

"Why don't we just go look in the shops?" Lily asked.

"Yeah, sure. See you two around." Daniel managed to wave goodbye to Sirius and Mary before Lily grabbed his hand and pulled him out the door.

They were walking down the Hogsmeade lane, snow was falling, still holding hands from when Lily had grabbed his, when Daniel asked about it.

"James Potter is in love with you?"

"Apparently, I thought everybody knew that though."

"I knew he asked you out a lot. I figured he was too arrogant to actually be able to fall in love."

"I know what you mean. I hope that now that we're…" Lily awkwardly waved her arms around in attempted explanation, and Daniel nodded. "Well I hope now maybe he'll stop."

"He'd better. You know why?" Daniel stopped walking, and turned Lily to face him.

"Why?" She could barely whisper the word.

"Because I want you to be mine. All mine. Can we make that happen?"

Lily nodded, and he kissed her.

**So I realized that I have a lot of Hogsmeade chapters, but oh well. And Daniel is here because well, I highly doubt Lily would marry her first boyfriend. Plus Daniel is part of this thing I thought of, which also doesnt take place until their next year. But oh well. **

**And as always, please review!  
**


	14. Chapter 14

_Hey! So, I'm sorry this chapter is sooo late. I've the idea for it for a while, and wanted it out by Christmas, but after Deathly Hallows Part 1, I went into slight denial over the end of the series, and it did not feel right writing. But I'm writing again now, so hopefully I wont be too busy and I'll be updating more often. _

_Please review! and enjoy!  
_

Chapter 14

The Hogwarts Express pulled into the platform. Lily and Mary both hopped up immediately. Both of them had opted to sit with their friends rather than boyfriends on the train ride home, but they both wanted to see them before they went home for the Christmas holidays.

Out on the platform, Lily saw Daniel already waiting for her. She hurried over.

"Hey," said Daniel, pulling her into his arms. "I missed you on the train."

Lily blushed. "What are we going to do without seeing each other for two weeks? I mean, if you miss me after only a few hours apart."

"We'll write. Because you won't let me see you and actually take you out, on a date, in the real world."

"You know that is only because my parents don't know about us yet. And I don't think they'd like it if I come home for two weeks, drop the news on them, and then ditch them to spend time with you."

"Well if you introduce me to them now, I'm sure they will like me enough to let you."

"I told you. They're not here today. I'm going home with Mary for a couple days."

"So you can stay with Mary for days, but not spend one day with me?" Daniel raised an eyebrow at Lily.

"Well… It's different." Lily defended.

Daniel laughed. "I know. But I'll miss you."

"I'll miss you too."

Mary watched Lily walk off toward Daniel, and then resumed her search around the platform for Sirius.

"There you are!" Sirius said, walking up behind her. "I've been looking everywhere for you." Mary turned around, and Sirius leaned down to kiss her.

"So I've been thinking," said Sirius, putting his arm around Mary and guiding her away from the train. "That these two weeks apart are going to feel much longer than necessary."

"And why is that?" asked Mary.

"Well, not only will I have to spend them with my family, who hates me, but I will also have to spend them without you. Which isn't good."

"No, it's not." Mary whispered.

"And, well, we both live in London."

"I know."

"And I would do anything to get away from my family this break. I would also do anything to see you this break. I'm staying with James from the day after Christmas to the end of the break, but before Christmas, if there was a day that neither of us was doing anything…"

"Sirius. We've been dating for about a month and a half now. It should not be taking you this long to ask me on a date. Lily is staying with me until the twenty second. How about on the twenty third, we do something."

"I'd love that. Now, Lily is coming our way, so you have to go."

"I'll miss you." Mary said, turning to kiss him.

"I'll miss you too. And I'll owl you about the twenty third."

"Hi Sirius." Lily said. "Have a good Christmas."

"Same to you. I've got to go. Goodbye Lily… Mary."

"Goodbye."

"So, you made plans to see Sirius?" Lily asked Mary that evening. They were sitting on Mary's bed with hot chocolate. Pyjamas on, make up off, it was time for girl talk.

"Yeah, the day after you leave. I'm looking forward to it. We've never seen each other outside of school."

"I wish I could see Daniel. But my parents will go crazy if I spend any less time with them than I do. They miss me while I'm at school."

"What about Petunia?"

"What about her? She still hates me. She barely talks to me. And for my last birthday she gave me socks."

"Were they at least nice socks?"

"Nope, just white cotton."

"That sucks."

"Yeah well. She's almost eighteen. That means adulthood in the muggle world. So maybe she'll move out and I won't have to see her every time I come home." Lily sighed and drained the remainder of her hot chocolate. "I'm getting tired."

"Same." Soon after the lights were shut off, the breathing steadied, and all was quiet.

The next few days passed rather quickly for Mary and Lily. They did all their Christmas shopping in the muggle shops by Mary's house, and they spent evenings watching movies from Marys moms video collection. The morning that Lily left, an owl flew into the kitchen as they were eating breakfast.

"Who's it from?" Lily asked between bites of porridge.

Mary didn't answer, she just ripped the envelope open.

_Mary,_

_ If it still works for you, then I was thinking I would come pick you up around four tomorrow afternoon? I have our date planned out. But, I do need your address. We will be taking the muggle underground, if that's alright. _

_ See you tomorrow?_

_ Sirius_

"Tomorrow at four," Mary muttered.

"Hmm?"

"I've got a date tomorrow at four."

"Congratulations."

"Will you help me pick out something to wear before you leave?"

"Of course."

The next afternoon, Mary sat in her bedroom, waiting for Sirius to arrive. She had told her parents all about him. At first they had been sceptical, seeing as he was a Black, and the Blacks had a reputation for their blood status prejudice. However, after finding out Sirius was in Gryffindor, they seemed alright with it.

The doorbell rang, and Mary bolted down the stairs.

"I'll get it," she called out, nearly knocking over her dad on the stairs.

She pulled open the door, and Sirius stood on the other side.

"Hi," she smiled at him. "Would you like to come in? My parents want to meet you."

"Yeah, okay." Sirius stepped into the foyer.

"You must be Sirius," Mary's dad said, entering the room, and reaching out to shake Sirius' hand.

"Yes, nice to meet you sir."

"Nice to meet you too. Now what exactly is your plan for this evening?"

"Oh, you know. Just this and that."

"Well, have her home by eleven."

"I will."

"Where's mom? I thought she wanted to meet him?" Mary asked her dad.

"She had to run out to do some errands." He explained, and Mary nodded.

"Okay, well we should go." She grabbed her coat from its hook by the door and slid on her shoes. "Bye daddy."

"Goodbye, have fun."

Mary led Sirius outside, and shut the door behind them.

"So what's the plan?"

"Well, I figured we'd start with this," Sirius grabbed her hand, "And then do this," he kissed her.

"And then what?" Mary asked breathlessly after they pulled apart.

"It's a surprise. But it's a muggle theme."

"You themed our date?" Mary asked incredulous as they began walking to the nearest underground station.

"Well, I wanted to do something we couldn't do in Hogsmeade. And seeing as we live in a muggle city, it seemed fitting."

"Well then lead on."

Half an hour later they were walking down some random London street. It was in an area of the city that Mary had never been in before. Shops crowded the streets, and Sirius and Mary were stopping to go in most of them.

"As much as I love muggle shopping, don't we have somewhere to be?" Mary finally asked.

"Our dinner reservations aren't until six."

"Then why did you come get me so early?"

"Because I wanted to spend as much time with you as possible."

Mary agreed. They spent the next hour or so talking. Talking about everything. Covering most subjects they hadn't even touched on in all the time they had spent together before. Finally, Sirius looked at his watch, and led Mary down a couple more streets to a small restaurant. The inside was dimly lit, but not too dim, and while the menu had a few items on the fancier side, it was no difficulty for two fifteen year olds to pick something to eat.

After dinner, Sirius and Mary walked for a few blocks until they reached an old movie theatre.

"Casablanca?"

"It's an old muggle movie." Sirius explained.

"I know, I think I've heard of it. But how have you heard of it?"

"I walked by here. Saw it was playing. Realized muggles go to movies on dates. And then I owled Lily to see if she'd heard of it, because I figured she may have, seeing as she's a muggle born."

"And has she heard of it?"

"She said it's one of her favourite movies. She also said to make sure we get popcorn, because its part of the experience."

"Well then lets go get popcorn and find seats."

Sirius and Mary got back to her house just before eleven. They stood on the doorstep, making awkward small talk. Neither of them wanting to leave.

"I should probably go inside. My curfew, you know." Mary said, after a long silence. She reached for the doorknob.

"Wait," Sirius said. "I almost forgot. I have your Christmas present."

"Oh, Sirius, you didn't have to get me anything. Besides, I haven't even wrapped yours yet."

"Yes, I did have to get you something." Sirius reached into his coat, pulling out a long narrow box. It was unwrapped, but it had a green bow sitting on top. "Merry Christmas."

Mary took the box. She held it for a moment, watching Sirius watch her, before opening it. She gasped.

"Sirius, it's beautiful." Inside sat a necklace. It was a thin gold chain, with a few dangling jewels. They were red.

"Gryffindor colours." Sirius grinned at her.

"I love it."

"I love you." Sirius looked shocked at himself for saying that. "I love you." He repeated, testing out the words, the ones that had slipped out, but he knew they were true.

"I love you too." Mary told him, and kissed him. "Help me put my new necklace on?"


	15. Chapter 15

_So, I realize it has been a very long time since I last updated, and this chapter sucks. Sorry for the disappointment. But, well at least I did update. So thats good... _

_Please review =)  
_

Chapter 15

The remainder of the Christmas holidays were fairly uninteresting for the students of Hogwarts. For most students, except Lily. Lily had been introduced to Petunia's new boyfriend, Vernon, who had come over for dinner on Boxing Day. Before he had arrived, Petunia had given Lily a strict talk about how her magic was not to be mentioned. Vernon thought their family was completely normal, and on the occasions he had been for dinner before, they had explained that Lily just spent her year at a regular boarding school. The evening at dinner was spent listening to Vernon's business ambitions, while he alone ate half the food provided (he was quite large).

"You should have invited Daniel to dinner tonight too, we'd like to meet him." Said Lily's mum as they were cleaning up after dinner. Petunia and Vernon had disappeared upstairs, and her dad was watching some sports game on TV.

"I don't think that would have been a good idea. Petunia made it very clear I was not to mention anything about magic in front of Vernon, and had Daniel been here, we definitely would have lets something slip."

"I don't know about that." Her mum said.

"I do. You would have asked him the same type of questions you probably asked Vernon the first time you met him. But with Daniel, questions like "What are your favourite classes?", and "what do you want to do with your life?" would have got answers like "potions and charms", and "I want to be a Healer." It wouldn't have been good."

"What's a healer?" Asked a curious voice from the kitchen doorway.

"Like doctors, but for us wizards." Lily answered without thinking. She then looked up, and saw it had been Vernon standing in the doorway. Vernon who had asked the question. And Petunia stood behind him looking horrified.

Vernon laughed. "Wizards? There are no such things as wizards, only people who think their wizards. Psychos."

Lily glared at him. "Psychos? What makes you say that?" She tried to keep her voice sounding calm. Her mum put a reassuring hand on her shoulder.

"People thinking they can do magic, it's crazy. Absolutely absurd. There's no such thing as magic." He rolled his eyes at Petunia, who gave him a weak smile in response.

"Actually," Lily said, her temper rising. "I go…"

"You are completely right." Her mum cut her off. "Completely mad. Lily was just talking about things out of a book she'd read."

"Oh, well that explains it. Why you'd want to read about stuff like that, I have no idea. But to each their own. I best be off. Thanks for dinner, Mrs. Evans, it was delicious, as always." Vernon turned down the hall, and Petunia followed him, glaring at Lily as she left.

"And that," muttered Lily, "is exactly why Daniel was not invited to dinner."

Lily retired to her room soon after. She changed into her pajamas, and went to brush her teeth. When she returned from the bathroom, an owl was waiting outside her window. She opened it wide, and he soared in. The owl looked vaguely familiar, but Lily knew it was none of her friends, she corresponded with them often enough to recognize theirs. She removed the letter from his leg, and he flew over to Rue's cage, where he drank some water, and then settled beside her on the perch. Lily tore open the letter, her eyes going straight to the bottom to see who it was from.

"James" she muttered. "Of course." She momentarily considered tossing the letter out now, but then decided she could at least read what he had to say.

_Lily,_

_I hope your Christmas holidays are going well. Mine are. I got a new broom, it's the new Cleansweep. It's a great broom. Maybe you'd like to try riding it when we return to school? I wouldn't mind at all. _

_ I hope this gets to you this evening, although it might not. I don't know how long it will take, because I don't know where you live. Because you won't tell me. But, I do hope you get it because I was wondering if you would like to come visit me in the next few days. I could show you around my village, introduce you to my parents, why, you could even ride my new broom if you wanted. _

_ I hope you'll consider. Or, at least write me back. _

_ I hope you're enjoying your holiday, _

_ James, xxx_

Lily read the letter through twice. She grabbed a new piece of parchment from her desk, and began to write.

_Mary,_

_ You will find enclosed the letter that James just wrote me. Am I an awful person because I laughed when I finished, then read it again? It's almost sweet, and it almost seems like something Peter would write, rather than James. It's almost as if he doesn't understand that I have a boyfriend, which makes him asking me out not only annoying, but completely inappropriate. Oh well. I can't wait to hear about your date with Sirius. Did he take you to Casablanca? Don't bother replying to this, I want to hear about it in person. See you soon!_

_ Lily_

Lily found an envelope in her desk, and put both her letter and James' in it. She tied them to Rue's leg, and watched her as she flew out the window, and out of sight. She turned back to face her room, and realized that James' owl was still there.

"You can go, I'm not replying to him," Lily told the owl, but he just stayed there.

A week later, he still hadn't left. Lily had spent the week begging him to leave, but had stayed, stubborn as his owner. Lily shoved the last of her books back into her trunk, and closed it. She looked to Rue's cage, where Rue and James' owl were sleeping, side by side.

"I guess it's too late to send you back, he can have you at the station." Said Lily, who was indeed leaving to go back to school very soon. After a rushed goodbye to Petunia, who couldn't care less that she was leaving, Lily was escorted to King's Cross Station by her parents. Due to unexpected traffic, they were late getting there, and Lily was very close to missing the train. She got on the front, looking in every compartment for her friends and for James as she headed to the back. The train was emptier than it was in September, but the empty compartments were spread out, so Lily was very near the back when she finally found her friends, Mary, Kathleen, Elizabeth, and Margaret.

"Lily, we were starting to wonder if you were coming." Said Mary, standing up to help Lily put her trunk overhead. "And why do you have two owls?"

"James' wouldn't leave, have you seen him, I need to give him back. And have you seen Daniel? I didn't see him either."

"Daniel is with his friends at the back of the last compartment, Remus and Peter are a little before him, but James and Sirius are not on the train." Elizabeth answered her.

"Well where are they?"

"We don't know." Said Mary, slightly angry.

Lily rolled her eyes. She sat down, and caught up with her friends. Mary gave them a full description of her date, which took up until the lunch trolley came around. They ate, and then Lily went to sit with Daniel for a bit, where they exchanged belated Christmas presents.

When the train reached Hogwarts, Lily was back with her friends. They left the train, and took the horseless carriages up to the school. Lily released both of the owls, and the flew up to the owlery. She then began the walk to the Gryffindor common room. They bewitched their trunks so they wouldn't have to carry them.

"Password?" Asked the Fat Lady.

"Baubles." Kathleen responded.

"No, the password changed this morning. Sorry dears." Mary, Kathleen, Elizabeth, and Maragaret, turned and looked expectantly at Lily.

"What?"

"Prefect," Mary reminded her.

"Oh, right. They told me the new password before term ended. It's…" Lily racked her brain.

"It's "Treacle Tart", which is coincidently my favourite pudding." Said James, walking up behind them. The Fat Lady swung open and they all climbed inside. "Where is my owl, Evans? I haven't seen him since I sent you that letter."

"He's in the owlery, he wouldn't leave my house, I had to bring him with me."

"Well, yeah. I told him not to leave without an answer."

Lily set down her trunk and turned to look at James.

"So I guess since you didn't respond to that, I'll just have to ask you next Hogsmeade weekend. The end of this month."

"James, how many times do I have to tell you I won't go out with you?"

James smirked, "How ever many times it takes until you say yes."

"I will never say yes. I have a boyfriend now. Why won't you just leave me alone?" Lily asked him, exasperated.

"Because, well, because I…" James looked nervous. "Because I love you." But he said it almost as a question, and Lily rolled her eyes.

"No you don't. Now, please leave me alone." And Lily picked up her trunk, turned on her heel, and marched up the stairs to her dormitory.


End file.
